Abstract

This article offers a new synthesis of the role of geography and geographical thinking in the inception and diffusion of the U.S. eugenics movement and its relevance in social and racial sentiments today. This role was supported by the salience of the geographical imagination and the influence of eminent Ivy League-educated elites during the first quarter of the twentieth century. Moreover, the significance here is that the eugenics movement and its geographical imagination transferred into the implementation of policy, notably immigration restriction, anti-miscegenation, and sterilization laws. The geographical imagination provided fodder for xenophobic, anti-Semitic, racist, and anti-immigrant public sentiments that left a powerful legacy to this today.

摘要

本文提供了地理和地理思维在美国优生运动的创立和传播中的作用及其在当今社会和种族情绪中的相关性的新综合。二十世纪上半叶，地理想象力的杰出表现以及受常春藤联盟教育的精英阶层的影响为这一角色提供了支持。此外，这里的意义在于，优生运动及其地理想象力已转化为政策的实施，特别是移民限制，反人口迁移和绝育法律。地理上的想象力为仇外，反犹太，种族主义和反移民的公众情绪提供了饲料，这给今天留下了强大的遗产。