{"product_id":"the-question-of-unworthy-life-eugenics-and-germanys-twentieth-century-9780691261706","title":"The Question of Unworthy Life: Eugenics and Germany's Twentieth Century","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe dark history of eugenic thought in Germany from the nineteenth century to today--and the courageous countervoices\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBetween 1939 and 1945, Nazi genocide claimed the lives of nearly three hundred thousand people diagnosed with psychiatric illness or cognitive deficiencies. Not until the 1980s would these murders, as well as the coercive sterilizations of some four hundred thousand others classified as \"feeble-minded,\" be officially acknowledged as crimes at all.\u003ci\u003e The Question of Unworthy Life\u003c\/i\u003e charts this history from its origins in prewar debates about the value of disabled lives to our continuing efforts to unlearn eugenic thinking today. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDrawing on a wealth of rare archival evidence, Dagmar Herzog sheds light on how Germany became the only modern state to implement a plan to eradicate cognitive impairment from the entire body politic. She traces how eugenics emerged from the flawed premise that intellectual deficiency was biologically hereditary, and how this crude explanatory framework diverted attention from the actual economic and clinical causes of disability. Herzog describes how the vilification of the disabled was dressed up as the latest science and reveals how Christian leaders and prominent educators were complicit in amplifying and legitimizing Nazi policies. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eExposing the driving forces behind the Third Reich's first genocide and its persistent legacy today, \u003ci\u003eThe Question of Unworthy Life \u003c\/i\u003erecovers the stories of the unsung advocates for disability rights who challenged the aggressive victimization of the disabled and developed alternative approaches to cognitive impairment based on ideals of equality, mutuality, and human possibility.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDagmar Herzog\u003c\/b\u003e is Distinguished Professor of History and the Daniel Rose Faculty Scholar at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her many books include\u003ci\u003e Unlearning Eugenics: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Disability in Post-Nazi Europe\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSex after Fascism: Memory and Morality in Twentieth-Century Germany\u003c\/i\u003e (Princeton).\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50878047781138,"sku":"9780691261706","price":38.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_9233703b-9082-4372-bcc1-253d55ed8d14.jpg?v=1738200301","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-question-of-unworthy-life-eugenics-and-germanys-twentieth-century-9780691261706","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}