Other editions of book Eugenics and Other Evils

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"Eugenics and Other Evils" by G. K. Chesterton. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Before he has turned over half-a-dozen pages of Mr. Chesterton's book, the reader will feel as if he had been out in a high wind. Not, of course, the cold, steady-blowing north-easter that turns your clothes to paper, that blues your nose and finger-tips and temper. Never for one moment could the storm that rages between the covers of Eugenics and Other Evils be likened to that sort of thing. The book is chiefly concerned to oppose the segregation of the feeble-minded, and the principal argument brought forward by Mr. Chesterton is that, in the case of the proposed and current legislation about feeble-mindedness, we are treating this state in exactly the same way as we treat lunacy, whereas, says he, insanity is a definite state, "an isolated thing like leprosy." There is an abysmal distance between the lunatic and the ordinary man, but when we come to feeble-mindedness there is no such line of demarcation.

During the first three decades of the twentieth century, eugenics, the scientific control of human breeding, was a popular cause within enlightened and progressive segments of the English-speaking world. The New York Times eagerly supported it, gushing about the wonderful "new science." Prominent scientists, such as the plant biologist Luther Burbank, were among its most enthusiastic supporters. And the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations generously funded eugenic research intended to distinguish the 'fit' from the 'unfit.'

Mr. Chesterton's long essay on eugenics and other evils was written in 1922, just a few years after the close of the 'Great War.' This war was not yet known as World War I, and it could not then be imagined that a greater calamity could be possible. Chesterton ends with the acidic observation that if his readers don't believe how toxic materialistic philosophies are, "neither would they believe though one rose from the dead." Prophetic; Chesterton would die in 1936, a few short years before the horrors of World War II, carried out once again by the hands of those who rejected Christianity and embraced a secular humanism grounded in atheistic evolutionary theory. This deserves our careful consideration, and no author demands it with such wit, humor, and intellect.

When he wrote this book, Chesterton stood virtually alone against the intellectual world of his day. Yet to his eternal credit, he showed no sign of being intimidated by the prestige of his foes. On the contrary, he thunders against eugenics, ranking it one of the great evils of modern society. And, in perhaps one of the most chillingly accurate prophecies of the century, he warns that the ideas that eugenics had unleashed were likely to bear bitter fruit in another nation. That nation was Germany, the "very land of scientific culture from which the ideal of a Superman had come." In fact, the very group that Nazism tried to exterminate, Eastern European Jews, and the group it targeted for later extermination, the Slavs, were two of those whose biological unfitness eugenists sought so eagerly to confirm. (Goodreads)

I publish these essays, Eugenics and Other Evils, at the present time for a particular reason connected with the present situation; a reason which I should like briefly to emphasise and make clear.Though most of the conclusions, especially towards the end, are conceived with reference to recent events, the actual bulk of preliminary notes about the science of Eugenics were written before the war. It was a time when this theme was the topic of the hour; when eugenic babies (not visibly very distinguishable from other babies) sprawled all over the illustrated papers.Gilbert Keith Chesterton, (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936), was an English writer, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, lay theologian, biographer, and literary and art critic. Chesterton is often referred to as the "prince of paradox".Time magazine has observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out. Chesterton is well known for his fictional priest-detective Father Brown,[5] and for his reasoned apologetics. Even some of those who disagree with him have recognised the wide appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man.[4][6] Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an "orthodox" Christian, and came to identify this position more and more with Catholicism, eventually converting to Catholicism from High Church Anglicanism. George Bernard Shaw, his "friendly enemy", said of him, "He was a man of colossal genius."[4] Biographers have identified him as a successor to such Victorian authors as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, Cardinal John Henry Newman, and John Ruskin. Chesterton was born in Campden Hill in Kensington, London, the son of Marie Louise, née Grosjean, and Edward Chesterton.[8][9] He was baptised at the age of one month into the Church of England,[10] though his family themselves were irregularly practising Unitarians.[11]According to his autobiography, as a young man Chesterton became fascinated with the occultand, along with his brother Cecil, experimented with Ouija boards. Chesterton was educated at St Paul's School, then attended the Slade School of Art to become an illustrator. The Slade is a department of University College London, where Chesterton also took classes in literature, but did not complete a degree in either subject.In September 1895 Chesterton began working for the London publisher Redway, where he remained for just over a year.[14] In October 1896 he moved to the publishing house T. Fisher Unwin,[14] where he remained until 1902. During this period he also undertook his first journalistic work, as a freelance art and literary critic. In 1902 the Daily News gave him a weekly opinion column, followed in 1905 by a weekly column in The Illustrated London News, for which he continued to write for the next thirty years.Early on Chesterton showed a great interest in and talent for art. He had planned to become an artist, and his writing shows a vision that clothed abstract ideas in concrete and memorable images. Even his fiction contained carefully concealed parables. Father Brown is perpetually correcting the incorrect vision of the bewildered folks at the scene of the crime and wandering off at the end with the criminal to exercise his priestly role of recognition and repentance. For example, in the story "The Flying Stars", Father Brown entreats the character Flambeau to give up his life of crime: "There is still youth and honour and humour in you; don't fancy they will last in that trade. Men may keep a sort of level of good, but no man has ever been able to keep on one level of evil. That road goes down and down. The kind man drinks and turns cruel; the frank man kills and lies about it. Many a man I've known started like you to be an honest outlaw, a merry robber of the rich, and ended stamped into slime.

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When the concept of eugenics -- the practice of selecting for desirable traits in the larger population by encouraging gifted and/or attractive people to breed -- began to take hold in the early twentieth century, British thinker and writer G.K. Chesterton took a stance contrary to that of many intellectuals of the period and denounced it as evil in this bold, engaging series of essays.

Before he has turned over half-a-dozen pages of Mr. Chesterton's book, the reader will feel as if he had been out in a high wind. Not, of course, the cold, steady-blowing north-easter that turns your clothes to paper, that blues your nose and finger-tips and temper. Never for one moment could the storm that rages between the covers of Eugenics and Other Evils be likened to that sort of thing. The book is chiefly concerned to oppose the segregation of the feeble-minded, and the principal argument brought forward by Mr. Chesterton is that, in the case of the proposed and current legislation about feeble-mindedness, we are treating this state in exactly the same way as we treat lunacy, whereas, says he, insanity is a definite state, "an isolated thing like leprosy." There is an abysmal distance between the lunatic and the ordinary man, but when we come to feeble-mindedness there is no such line of demarcation.

G. K. Chesterton was an early critic of the philosophy of eugenics, expressing this opinion in his book, Eugenics and Other Evils. Its advocates regarded eugenics as a social philosophy for the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.Today it is widely regarded as a brutal movement which inflicted massive human rights violations on millions of people.HIs criticism of Eugenics expands into a more general criticism of a modern craze for scientific officialism and strict social organization.Chesterton's writings consistently displayed wit and a sense of humour. He employed paradox, while making serious comments on the world, government, politics, economics, philosophy, theology and many other topics.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.