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Previous Volume 346:458-459 February 7, 2002 Number 6 Next

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By Elof Axel Carlson. 451 pp., illustrated. Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2001. $39. ISBN 0-87969-587-0.

The Unfit: A History of a Bad Idea is a valuable contribution to historical scholarship relating to the eugenics movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. Carlson recounts some of the familiar episodes described in several other books on eugenics published in the past two decades, but he also provides a broader perspective on the topic. Carlson traces the idea of unfit races from biblical times to European and American laws dealing with poverty, crime, famine, disease, mental illness, and illegitimacy. By showing that the idea of the unfit has social, political, and religious origins and uses outside of the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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