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Iconoclastic eugenics: thorstein veblen on racial diversity and cultural nomadism 1

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 14; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0390670042000318359

1469-9273

Sophus A. Reinert,

Economic Theory and Institutions

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes I would like to thank the editors of this volume, Robert Dimand, Robert Fredona, Espen Heramb, William B. Provine, Fernanda A. Reinert, William Waller, Solidelle Fortier Wasser , and particularly Geoffrey M. Hodgson and Francesca L. Viano for helpful comments, suggestions, and constructive criticisms. I would furthermore like to thank Pål Magnus Lykkja of the Oslo University Library for valuable assistance. The usual caveat applies. A Carl Schurz Fellowship at the Krupp Chair of Public Finance and Fiscal Sociology at the University of Erfurt financed my studies in the period this paper was written. For an interesting comparison of the intertwined lives of these two economists, see Dimand (1998 Dimand, RW. 1998. Fisher and Veblen: two paths for American economics. Journal of the History of Economic Thought, vol. 20(4): pp. 449–465 [Google Scholar]). For a survey of their disagreements see Tilman (1992, pp. 25–37). Neither, however, dwells on the issues of race and eugenics. The 1934 Sterilization Law is reprinted in its entirety in Kemp (1951 Kemp T Arvehygiene, Bianco Lunos Bogtrykkeri Copenhagen 1951 [Google Scholar]). Dikotter recently examined how racial hygiene promoted social cohesion, and concluded that 'eugenics promoted a biologizing vision of society in which the reproductive rights of the individuals were subordinated to the rights of an abstract organic collectivity' (1998, p. 486). The first Nobel Laureate in Literature Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson was a particularly close friend of the Mjøen family, and he was so fond of Cläre Mjøen's translations that he once sent her a letter thanking her for improving his work. She would, in fact, translate the majority of his correspondence with the world, along with his books, poems, and plays (S. Mjøen, n.d., p. 20). Fisher would discuss 'the yellow peril' and 'the rising tide of color', Mjøen would argue 'You can, with schooling or the teaching of manners at home, with psychiatric institutions or large public expenditures, no more turn a feeble-minded individual into a talented one than you can wash a black child white'. Their differences lie mainly in the realm of presentation (Fisher, 1921 Fisher, I. 1921. Impending problems of eugenics. Scientific Monthly, vol. 13(3): pp. 214–231 [Google Scholar], p. 226; Mjøen, 1914 Mjøen JA Racehygiene, Jacob Dybwads Forlag Kristiania 1914 [Google Scholar], p. 42). Veblen's essay on The Mutation Theory and the Blond Race mentions, apart from Sergi, also works by Bean, Deniker, Ridgeway, and Sollas. Veblen's Mutation Theory and the Blond Race was published in the Journal of Race Development, a journal Fisher also published in (Dimand, 1998 Dimand, RW. 1998. Fisher and Veblen: two paths for American economics. Journal of the History of Economic Thought, vol. 20(4): pp. 449–465 [Google Scholar], p. 452). It was founded in 1910 as the first journal on international relations, renamed in 1919 as the Journal of International Relations and finally superseded by Foreign Affairs. On this see http://www.clarku.edu/offices/library/archives/BlakesleeCollection.htm Notice in particular Veblen's use of the term 'feeble-minded', a favourite among pro-sterilisation lobbyists. For a typical discussion of the term, see Schmucker (1916 Schmucker SC The Meaning of Evolution, Macmillan New York 1916 [Google Scholar], pp. 264–267). The list is also interesting to compare to the ones offered by Jon Alfred Mjøen and Irving Fisher.