Madison Grant – Eugenics, Heredity, Class, Immigration, Great Replacement, Conservation and Nazis

In recent years we have observed the rise of white nationalism, alt &/or far right, nativism, eugenics, neo-Nazis etc. in the Anglosphere and Europe, often underpinned by divisive dog whistle politics through legacy media. For one to understand modern Anglo &/or European nativism, the past of eugenics and conservation in the US especially, the history of Madison Grant starting over a century ago, needs to be scrutinised. Following is a brief but incomplete overview from relevant literature, including Grant’s own writings.

Madison Grant was born in the 19th century and is still influential from his work in early 20th century round eugenics, conservation and issues of liberal democracy; Grant actually though that ‘non-experts’ should not be involved in democracy and education should not be encouraged (Grant 1919) .

‘Grant was among the most vocal and strident supporters of a eugenic approach to social control, and virtually every historian who has dealt with the eugenics movement mentions or discusses Grant’s work to some extent.’ (Regal 2004).

It has been suggested that Grant’s selective views round eugenics and humanity were developed by changing demographics in north east US with increasing numbers of non WASP or non Nordic immigrants, claiming a ‘great replacement’ (Hoff 2020).

Around the turn of the 19th to 20th century, after the ‘melting pot’ era, is when more focus appeared on the supposed need for immigration restrictions and the realisation from WWI that WASPs were being outnumbered by immigrants; again the ‘great replacement’ (Grant 1924).

Themes or areas Grant explored, researched, wrote and promoted, included politics, class, environment, heredity, ‘intellectual’ racism, reproduction, race betterment and that of families, AER American Eugenics Research, Birth Control League & Planned Parenthood, AES American Eugenics Society, immigration restrictions, population control and ‘the great replacement’ leading onto extremism (Grant 1919).

Further, Grant uses the expression ‘internationalisation’ versus nowadays ‘globalisation’ which is used as a pejorative term by the right and left in politics, but for Grant possibly suggested miscegenation too? Grant went further, highlighting the importance of race by claiming Nordic bourgeoisie are being ruined by Alpine peasants, and also challenges valuable ethnic elements of Russia, versus Europe (Ibid.).

Eugenics Organisations

Grant was known for his book “The Passing of the Great Race, or The Racial Basis of European History,” of ideas masquerading as science, antipathy towards non Nordic versus Nordic, who were being overtaken by Alpine or Mediterranean types. Was this an example of the emerging ‘great replacement’ trope that has returned of late (Purdy 2015)?

Interest in eugenics brought the ‘Embryo Project’ along with ‘Experimental Evolution’, ‘Race Betterment Foundation’ and the ERO Eugenics Records Office. (Gur-Arie 2014). A collaborator Grant’s was Charles Davenport who was influential in founding the Eugenics Record Office in 1910 which acted as a research laboratory and repository for genealogical data in Cold Spring Harbour New York (Regal 2004).

Grant founded or was involved in many organisations, but the ongoing theme was always related to eugenics. These organisations included AES American Eugenics Society established by Grant, Laughlin, Crampton, Fisher and Osborn to manage reproduction, in 1924 (Gur-Arie 2014). AES presented at fairs promoting contests round ‘Fitter Families’ and statistical analysis of ‘able bodied’ compared to ‘degenerates’. Gur-Arie, R. (Ibid.). Perkins founded the ‘Birth Control League’, founded by Margaret Sanger, the precursor of ‘Planned Parenthood’ (Ibid.).

AES Under Huntington 1934-8 moved from promoting positive eugenics to negative eugenics whereby the latter need to be discouraged from breeding (Gur-Arie 2014). In 1939, Eugenical News moved to the Eugenics Research Association to the AES and till the mid 1950s was the primary source of eugenics news (Ibid.).

Before Grant established the Galton Society in 1918 he was already a member, and President 1918 to 1919 of the Eugenics Research Association, plus member of American Defense League and the Immigration Restriction League. He was also involved in Second (‘21) and Third (‘32) International Eugenics Congresses hosted at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City that gave Harry H. Laughlin and Ernst Rüdin, some infamy (Hoff 2020).

Influencers & Influence

In 1905 Thomas Dixon’s novel ‘The Clansman’ appeared and had an account of the Ku Klux Klan as people became aware of Negro migration to the north. (McDaniel 1997). Grant also related conservation of nature and wildlife to racial science; still apparent today under the guise of population growth (Ibid.).

Around the time of Theodore Roosevelt pre WWI, Grant developed the “racialist moment” emerging with eugenics and intellectual racism till the Great Depression. ‘Conservationists’ like Grant and others were criticised for having more moral concern for the environment and non-human life than they did for human beings in general, who they wished to avoid; suggesting a class system (Purdy 2015).

The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 also drew upon Grant’s support and legal expertise in drafting and lobbying for immigration restrictions (Hoff 2020). According to Grant the Nordic people were superior, his book ‘The Passing of the Great Race’ was described by Hitler as his ‘bible’ and was produced by the defence as evidence of eugenics not being a German phenomenon at Nuremberg trials, but introduced by the US (Ibid). The same also allegedly influenced immigration policies in the British Empire or Anglosphere and the need to screen for ‘hereditary fitness’ to exclude ‘mentally defective’ (McDaniel 1997).

Kühl demonstrated that the impact of American eugenics was also strongly felt in Nazi Germany, where the works of Grant, Stoddard, and other American eugenicists were standard citations (Whitman 2018). After 1933 the glory days of eugenics were threatened by Nazism favouring ‘negative eugenics’ (McDaniel 1997).

Eugenics Post WWI and later 20th Century

During the ‘60s at Princeton a crossover between geneticists and population or demographic specialists emerged whereby scientists linked social/physical environment factors with heredity and human development. (Gur-Arie 2014)

While growth or interest in the Sierra Club on conservation emerged in the ‘70s, William Vogt encouraged eugenics to alleviate what was viewed, unscientifically, as overpopulation. This then led onto ZPG Zero Population Growth with Paul ‘Population Bomb’ Ehrlich who seemed affected on environment by a revelatory visit to Delhi in India where he was confronted with humanity, poverty and slum, blaming overpopulation (Purdy 2015).

Grant has had strong influence over time from his own writing, efforts round eugenics research, informing immigration policies, in addition to influencing both Britain and Nazi Germany, then for eugenics to be submerged within other manifestations including immigration and population growth.

References

Grant, M., (1919). DISCUSSION OF ARTICLE ON DEMOCRACY AND HEREDITY Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article-abstract/10/4/164/818813 by University of California Santa Barbara/Davidson Library user on 24 March 2018

Grant, M., (1924). The Racial Transformation of America. The North American Review. Mar., 1924, Vol. 219, No. 820 (Mar., 1924), pp. 343- 352 Published by: University of Northern Iowa Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25113246

Gur-Arie, R., (2014). “American Eugenics Society (1926-1972)”. Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2014-11-22). ISSN: 1940-5030 http://embryo.asu.edu/handle/10776/8241.

Hoff, A., (2020). “Madison Grant (1865–1937)”. Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2021-06-20). ISSN: 1940-5030 http://embryo.asu.edu/handle/10776/13278. Show full item record (https://hpsrepository.asu.edu/handle/10776/13278)

McDaniel, G., (1997). Madison Grant and the Racialist Movement – The distinguished origins of racial activism. American Renaissance. Vol. 8, No. 12 December 1997

Purdy, J., (2015). New Yorker Environmentalism’s Racist History. August 13, 2015 [Viewed 2 May 2022]. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/environmentalisms-racist-history

Regal, B., (2004). Madison Grant, Maxwell Perkins, and Eugenics Publishing at Scribner’s, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Winter 2004), pp. 317- 342 Published by: Princeton University Library Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.25290/prinunivlibrchro.65.2.0317

Whitman, J (2018). Hitler’s American Model The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law. Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 33, Issue 2, Fall 2019, Pages 277–279, Princeton University Press https://doi.org/10.1093/hgs/dcz039

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