Publishers Weekly
09/05/2022
A century of efforts to breed, sterilize, or slaughter the way to grasp control over “who lives” is lambasted in this stinging study of the eugenics movement. Geneticist Rutherford (How to Argue with a Racist) begins by surveying the 20th-century impact of eugenics, the attempt to improve the genetic profile of a population by discouraging certain people—historically the poor, the disabled, and racial minorities—from having children. The doctrine led to thousands of Americans being sterilized under state eugenics laws in the 1930s and, in Nazi Germany, to the mass murder of those deemed genetically “undesirable.” These policies, Rutherford shows, grew from a pro-eugenics consensus among leading scientists and other mainstream figures of the time, from Winston Churchill to W.E.B. Du Bois. Rutherford then investigates the neo-eugenics enthusiasm surrounding present-day advances in genetic screening and gene editing, and convincingly debunks the notion of superhuman “designer babies,” arguing that it’s “barely viable” to enhance complex traits such as intelligence with genetic-engineering technologies. Rutherford writes in a pugnacious, sometimes polemical style—“It persists like a turd that won’t flush,” he remarks of Madison Grant’s perennially influential white-supremacist tome The Passing of the Great Race—while conveying the science in a lucid, down-to-earth way. The result is a stimulating critique of one of science’s most disgraceful chapters. (Nov.)
Financial Times - Philip Ball
"A clear-sighted look at the past and present dangers of eugenics. Rutherford tells [the story] with great concision and with clarity, both scientific and moral. [He] condenses tricky concepts into smart and often witty prose, combining erudition with humility.… Honest, informed and humane."
New Statesman - John Gray
"[Rutherford’s] scientific demolition of the eugenic project is brilliantly illuminating and compelling. His book will be indispensable for anyone who wants to assess the wild claims and counter-claims surrounding new genetic technologies."
Carlo Rovelli
"A remarkable combination of intelligence, knowledge, insight and admirable political passion, on a serious moral problem in contemporary society."
Book of the Week - The Times - Emma Duncan
"Rutherford’s swift, well-written account of these fascinating scientific and moral issues is well worth a read."
Book of the Week - Observer - Tim Adams
"A short, sharp, illuminating overview of the science, politics, uses and abuses of human gene editing"
Alice Roberts
"Weighty and serious but accessible and perfectly pitched. The scholarship is astounding."
Book of the Day - Guardian - Katy Guest
"Control is persuasive, sensible and ultimately reassuring, but it is not complacent.… To know history is ‘to inoculate ourselves against its being repeated,’ Rutherford argues. From that perspective, this book is a shot worth having."
Guardian (UK)
Control is persuasive, sensible, and ultimately reassuring, but it is not complacent…To know history is ‘to inoculate ourselves against its being repeated,’ Rutherford argues. From that perspective, this book is a shot worth having.”
Financial Times (UK)
A clear-sighted look at the past and present dangers of eugenics. Rutherford tells [the story] with great concision and with clarity, both scientific and moral.”
The Times (UK)
Rutherford’s swift, well-written account of these fascinating scientific and moral issues is well worth a read.”
New York Times bestselling author Carlo Rovelli
A remarkable combination of intelligence, knowledge, insight, and admirable political passion, on a serious moral problem in contemporary society.”
author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Carlo Rovelli
A remarkable combination of intelligence, knowledge, insight, and admirable political passion, on a serious moral problem in contemporary society.”
