Introduction

The literature on the history of eugenics has grown in recent decades. It ranges more widely geographically and thematically than before. Sterilization and public health measures were important facets of the doctrine and were justified in terms of heredity. In Britain eugenics was geared towards the contemporary interests of the bourgeoisie. The chapter outlines the contents of the rest of the monograph. It is an institutional history of the Galton Laboratory and the Eugenics Society from their beginnings until they no longer officially concerned themselves with the doctrine. It covers eugenics as a political movement, rather than as a science. By comparative standards, British eugenists were not especially successful. In retrospect, their failure to bring in sterilization spared their homeland the opprobrium of being responsible for a grave abuse of human rights.