Research Catalog

Imbeciles : the Supreme Court, American eugenics, and the sterilization of Carrie Buck

Title: Imbeciles : the Supreme Court, American eugenics, and the sterilization of Carrie Buck / Adam Cohen.
Author: Cohen, Adam (Adam Seth)
Publication: New York : Penguin Press, 2016.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 16-3853	Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 17-6202	Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description

402 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

Describes a dark moment in American history, when the Supreme Court agreed, in 1927, to support eugenic sterilization for "undesirables," including epileptics and the "feebleminded," resulting in the sterilization of seventy thousand Americans. --Publisher's description.
"One of America's great miscarriages of justice, the Supreme Court's infamous 1927 Buck v. Bell ruling made government sterilization of "undesirable" citizens the law of the land. New York Times bestselling author Adam Cohen tells the story in Imbeciles of one of the darkest moments in the American legal tradition: the Supreme Court's decision to champion eugenic sterilization for the greater good of the country. In 1927, when the nation was caught up in eugenic fervor, the justices allowed Virginia to sterilize Carrie Buck, a perfectly normal young woman, for being an "imbecile." It is a story with many villains, from the superintendent of the Dickensian Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded who chose Carrie for sterilization to the former Missouri agriculture professor and Nazi sympathizer who was the nation's leading advocate for eugenic sterilization. But the most troubling actors of all were the eight Supreme Court justices who were in the majority--including William Howard Taft, the former president; Louis Brandeis, the legendary progressive; and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., America's most esteemed justice, who wrote the decision urging the nation to embark on a program of mass eugenic sterilization"--

Subjects

Genre/Form

Trials, litigation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-382) and index.

Contents

Carrie Buck -- Albert Priddy -- Albert Priddy -- Harry Laughlin -- Harry Laughlin -- Aubrey Strode -- Aubrey Strode -- Oliver Wendell Holmes -- Oliver Wendell Holmes -- Carrie Buck.

Call Number

JFE 16-3853

ISBN

9781594204180 (hardback)
1594204187 (hardback)

LCCN

2015044207

OCLC

911171862

Author

Cohen, Adam (Adam Seth), author.

Title

Imbeciles : the Supreme Court, American eugenics, and the sterilization of Carrie Buck / Adam Cohen.

Publisher

New York : Penguin Press, 2016.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-382) and index.

Connect to:

Cover image

Indexed Term

Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927)

Research Call Number

JFE 16-3853

JFE 17-6202

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