Many people are shocked upon discovering that tens of thousands of
innocent persons in the United States were involuntarily sterilized,
forced into institutions, and otherwise maltreated within the course of
the eugenic movement (1900DS30). Such social control efforts are easier
to understand when we consider the variety of dehumanizing and
fear-inducing rhetoric propagandists invoke to frame their potential
victims.
This book details the five major themes employed within the context of
eugenic propaganda, and provides numerous examples of their use based on
original sources of the period. These include the organism, animal, war
or national catastrophe, religious and object metaphors. Rhetoric
related to these themes was utilized to demonstrate the extent of
potential harm posed by the presumptive unrelenting child-bearing among
unfit groups; a threat that could only be countered by ensuring that
such persons did not breed. Early in the twentieth century the term
"moron" was developed to describe the primary targets of eugenic
control. This book demonstrates how the image of moronity in the United
States was shaped by eugenicists.
The book will be of interest not only to disability and eugenic scholars
and historians, but to anyone who wants to explore the means by which
pejorative metaphors are used to support social control efforts against
vulnerable community groups. While readers may be appalled at the use of
such rhetoric to support control efforts, they will also no doubt draw
parallels regarding the use of similar language in contemporary
socio-political speeches and writings.
