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HEREDITARIANISM, EUGENICS, AND AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE IN THE INTERWAR YEARS: MEET THE CARVERIANS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2022

Luca Fiorito  and
Valentina Erasmo
Luca Fiorito*
Affiliation:
Luca Fiorito: University of Palermo
Valentina Erasmo
Affiliation:
Valentina Erasmo: G. D’Annunzio University.
*
Correspondence may be addressed to Luca Fiorito at [email protected].
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Abstract

Like other Progressive Era reformers, Thomas Nixon Carver promoted a form of biology-infused social science that included both eugenics and a strong version of hereditarianism. Carver was also a charismatic teacher who trained several generations of economists and sociologists at Harvard. In this paper we will focus on the contribution of three of them: James A. Field, Norman E. Himes, and Carl S. Joslyn. These authors differ in terms of style, method, and emphasis—with Field and Himes more interested in population and birth control issues, and Joslyn in the dynamics of social stratification. As it will be shown below, however, all of them reveal an explicit commitment to hereditarianism and eugenics, which can be directly traced back to Carver’s influence during their student days at Harvard.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 24 - 50
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the History of Economics Society

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Footnotes

We wish to thank Tim Leonard, David Levy, Sandra Peart, Malcolm Rutherford, and two unknown referees for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The usual disclaimers apply.

References

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