James A. Field: the making and unmaking of an eugenist
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: James Alfred Field’s enthusiastic survey on the “Progress of Eugenics,” published in Citation1911 on the Quarterly Journal of Economics, is usually referred to as evidence of the pervasiveness of eugenic and biologically deterministic arguments among Progressive Era social scientists. Over the years, however, Field substantially changed his position and in a series of subsequent articles and addresses, posthumously collected in the volume Essays on Population and Other Papers (Citation1931), he revealed an increasing uneasiness towards the claims of the eugenists. The aim of this note is to offer a reconstruction of his intellectual path, from his early advocacy of eugenics to his mature and disenchanted views on eugenic selection, population planning, and birth control.
Author: Luca Fiorito
Language: English
Topic: Medical History and Research
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7083510445