Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

British Eugenics Failure And Success, Angela Gallagher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The historical narrative of eugenics often focuses on those eugenic societies and movements that ‘succeeded’ in part or in full in achieving a eugenic society. Less studied are those societies that failed, whether due to social backlash or internal incoherence. The British Eugenic Educational Society as the foundational point of eugenics, has therefore been overlooked as a result of it’s perceived lack of contribution to eugenic thought and its failure to pass eugenic legislation. Founded by Francis Galton, the originator of the philosophy of eugenics, the British Eugenic Educational Society should have been successful given it’s reputation and the numerous …