Book/Printed Material With and Without Galton : Vasilii Florinskii and the Fate of Eugenics in Russia

Title

• With and Without Galton : Vasilii Florinskii and the Fate of Eugenics in Russia

Summary

• "In 1865, British polymath Francis Galton published his initial thoughts about the scientific field that would become 'eugenics.' The same year, Russian physician Vasilii Florinskii addressed similar issues in a sizeable treatise, entitled Human Perfection and Degeneration. Initially unheralded, Florinskii's book would go on to have a remarkable afterlife in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Russia. In this lucid and insightful work, Nikolai Krementsov argues that the concept of eugenics brings together ideas, values, practices, and fears energised by a focus on the future. It has proven so seductive to different groups over time because it provides a way to grapple with fundamental existential questions of human nature and destiny. With and Without Galton develops this argument by tracing the life-story of Florinskii's monograph from its uncelebrated arrival amid the Russian empire's Great Reforms, to its reissue after the Bolshevik Revolution, its decline under Stalinism, and its subsequent resurgence: first, as a founding document of medical genetics, and most recently, as a manifesto for nationalists and racial purists. Krementsov's meticulously researched 'biography of a book' sheds light not only on the peculiar fate of eugenics in Russia, but also on its convoluted transnational history, elucidating the field's protean nature and its continuing and contested appeal to diverse audiences, multiple local trajectories, and global trends. It is required reading for historians of eugenics, science, medicine, education, literature, and Russia, and it will also appeal to the general reader looking for a deeper understanding of this challenging subject."--Publisher's website.

Names

• Krement︠s︡ov, N. L., author.
• Open Book Publishers, publisher.

Created / Published

• Cambridge, UK : Open Book Publishers, 2018.

Contents

• Preface; List of Abbreviations; List of Illustrations; Note on Names, Transliterations, and Translations; Acknowledgments; The Faces of Eugenics: Local Mirrors and Global Reflections; I. "HYGIENIC" AND "RATIONAL" MARRIAGE; 1. The Author: Vasilii Florinskii; 2. The Publisher: Grigorii Blagosvetlov; 3. The Book: Darwinism and Social Hygiene; 4. The Hereafter: Words and Deeds; II. "BOURGEOIS" AND "PROLETARIAN" EUGENICS; 5. Rebirth: Eugenics and Marxism; 6. Resonance: Euphenics, Medical Genetics, and Rassenhygiene; 7. Afterlife: Medical Genetics and "Racial" Eugenics.
• 8. Science of the Future: With and Without GaltonApologia: The Historian's Craft; Notes; Index.

Headings

• -  Florinskīĭ, V. M.--(Vasilīĭ Markovich),--1833-1899.--Usovershenstvovanie i vyrozhdenie chelovecheskogo roda
• -  Galton, Francis,--1822-1911--Criticism and interpretation
• -  Eugenics--Soviet Union--History

Notes

• -  Includes bibliographical references and index.
• -  Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (Open Book Publishers website; viewed on 2020-04-21)

Medium

• 1 online resource (xxv, 666 pages)

Call Number/Physical Location

• HQ755.5.S65

Digital Id

• https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/gdcebookspublic.2019452974

Library of Congress Control Number

• 2019452974

Rights Advisory

• Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode External

Access Advisory

• Unrestricted online access

Online Format

• image
• pdf

LCCN Permalink

• https://lccn.loc.gov/2019452974

Additional Metadata Formats

• MARCXML Record
• MODS Record
• Dublin Core Record