2 - Degeneration and regeneration

Summary

Proponents always presented eugenics as a progressive movement, a viewpoint that carried over into the work of early historians of eugenics. In light of the Nazi Holocaust, however, most scholarship of the past two decades has stressed the conservative, right-wing nature of eugenics, and occasional efforts to redress the balance have been loudly shouted down. The history of eugenics in France reveals the existence of both progressive and conservative elements, but eugenics can be better understood from the start as being fundamentally conservative in nature.

Eugenics in France grew out of several movements for biological regeneration at the end of the nineteenth century such as neo-Malthusianism and social hygiene, which at first glance appear to be progressive. But the beginnings of these movements cannot be fully understood separately from the perceptions of degeneration that they sought to correct. From this perspective, French eugenics was reactionary – that is, it attempted to restore a previous status quo or reverse negative trends. It was, therefore, less inspired by utopian visions of a shining city on a hill than by a fear of regression and decline. What Garland Allen has said of the American eugenics movement and Progressivism, can also be said of developments in France:

It was in large part a reactionary, return to the “good old days” philosophy which looked backward rather than forward. Its only consistent “progressive” (forward looking) aspect was a belief that social ills could be cured by some form of community or governmental intervention in otherwise laissez-faire processes of the world.