Edwin Black (1) (1950–)

It's no secret: although eugenics triumphed in its most despicable and murderous form in Nazi Germany, the Nazis were just carrying on to the next extreme what had been thought and done in the USA during the previous decades. In fact, the Nuremberg Laws and even the sterilization laws that had preceded them were just, at their core, just a copy of the same type of legislation then defining about 27 states in the US. Sadly, though, if the victims of the Nazis regime had been liberated when show more the gas chambers closed down after the Third Reich's collapse, victims of American eugenics were not that lucky -its practice went well into the 1970s, if not beyond. It's an horrific story, with gruesome parallels, but which deserves to be known.

Edwin Black delivers here a masterpiece and must-read on the topic. His book is magistral, dense, well-researched and meticulous. It also is, despite its challenging length (more than 600 pages!) a very engaging expose of how what happened in Nazi Germany was nothing but the brainchild of a twisted intellectual movement born in the USA. War Against the Weak is highly instructive. It also stands as a powerful warning.

Indeed, the striking and sad thing is, eugenics claimed to be rooted in science and genetics, yet, serious biologists and geneticists even back then knew perfectly well it was everything but. There was nothing in the theory of evolution as outlined by Darwin which justified it; and, more to the point, a basic understanding of Mendelian genetics was amply enough to debunk it outright. In fact, even the man who had coined the word, Francis Galton, had refused until his death in 1911 to align himself with such burgeoning socio-political agenda -he was too clever to rely even on his own assumptions, and, anyway, his was a matter of 'positive eugenics' (encouraging the supposedly fit to procreate) away from the 'negative eugenics' (the getting-rid of the supposedly unfit, through forced sterilizations if necessary) that would ultimately swamp America, and take upon its own genocidal course under Nazism. Not that it mattered, but the impact would be hugely different.

How come, then, such a pseudo-science, such intellectual fraud, came to be so popular? How come major political figures would take it up and enshrine its tenets into laws? Edwin Black here strikes right at the heart of it all: the so-called American 'melting pot', and money.

Racism, of course, always had been pernicious in America. But, if it's obvious and easy to think White vs Black, in a country that were deeply impacted by slavery, a Civil War motivated in part by White Supremacy, and which was then subjected to Jim Crow laws, the author rightly reminds that American racism was also White vs White. There was no such thing as an admirable 'melting-pot' indeed (well, think of the Native-Americans or even the Mexicans...) and Ellis Island was as much a beckon of hope for many fleeing all corners of the world as it was a center to sort out the undesirable -for being of the wrong creed, the wrong colour, including the wrong white. The perceived threat of 'race suicide' terrified many.

'By no mean did the eugenics movement limit its animus to non-English speaking immigrants. It was a movement against non-Nordics regardless of their skin color, language or national origin.'

Where the book truly rings alarm bells and pop red flags, though, is when Edwin Black discusses the crucial influence of powerful business barons and their fortunes. Eugenics surely was nothing but a scientific sham adhered to by looneys, but these looneys, in America, were backed by millions of dollars and, oh boy! They didn't waste it! The Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation, Mary Harriman (the widow of a railroad magnate, filthy rich), even IBM... They would all happily fork in to make sure their social prejudices were lobbied as they should -for social prejudices it was too. Being the instrument of the wealthy, eugenics was not only an attack upon the 'inferior races', but, an attack on the poor as well. But here was a complex and wide-ranging program, which would target from the disabled to the criminals, and the poor to the foreigners.

'Eugenics was nothing less than corporate philanthropy gone wild.'

'Big money made all the differences for eugenics. Indeed, biological supremacy, raceology and coercive eugenics battle plan were all just talk until those ideas married into American affluence. With that affluence came the means and the connections to make eugenics theory an administrative reality.'

What about the Nazis, then? Well, I personally knew about the 'intellectual' influence of American eugenicists upon Nazis thinkers. I also knew about American legislations inspiring Hitler (e.g. Carrie Buck vs Bell, or, the Virginia Integrity Act to prevent so-called 'mongrelization' truly were landmark cases indeed...). The author, of course, details it all brilliantly. What I didn't know was, how deeper and closer both side of the Atlantic were intertwined, beyond just mere ideals echoing each other. Richard Davenport was an unrepentant Nazis apologetic until his death in 1944. Harry Laughlin was offered a Honorary Degree from the University of Heidelberg for his influence on 'racial hygiene'. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, where such 'sciences' were performed, had been financed by the Rockefeller Foundation (until the break out of the war, but, still, their money had made some of such institutions possible in the first place). In fact, the sickening collaboration will even have weird consequences: Dr Katzen-Ellenbogen, one of the doctors at Buchenwald, had been Chief Eugenicist in New Jersey (interestingly enough, when Woodrow Wilson was then its Governor...) before emigrating to Europe; while a Otto Hoffman, SS in charge of the Race and Settlement Office, would cite American policies and legislations as his defense during his trial -he couldn't understand how the USA could accuse him of crime against humanity, they who had brainstormed the same kind of policies in the name of the same views! He could be excused; when the Nazis were getting tougher with their eugenics policies:

'While much of the world recoiled in revulsion, American eugenicists covered eugenic developments in Germany with pride and excitement...'

This is not an indictment, though. In fact, Edwin Black is remarkably fair in his account. Yes, he debunks mercilessly the racism and social prejudices of cranks, whose success was owed to unscrupulous financiers fueled by their own agendas. But he also reminds us that, eugenics was also perceived as a charitable movement, its practical use a form of philanthropic endeavour. Case in point: Margaret Sanger. She still is very controversial in America, and so should she! Her views were typical of this grey area illustrating that, well, the road to hell can be paved with good intent indeed... As the author stresses, she was:

'...a powerful example of American eugenics' ability to pervade, infect and distort the most dedicated causes and the most visionary reformers. None was untouchables.'

Here's a massive opus, yet engaging and truly leaving the reader with food for thought. Of course, here's an history of American eugenics per se, and how it ideologically impacted the Nazi regime. But, it also is more than that. By reminding us that such pseudo-science would have never triumphed as it did without the powerful backing-up of successful capitalists (in the USA in any case) it serves as a warning too. In the age of genetic engineering and other wonders, is it that a good idea to entrust into the hands of private entrepreneurs and other venture corporates the potential offered by our cracking of the structure of DNA? Money talks; but what it has to say is not always wise... Striking. Brilliant. Important. show less

This is one of the saddest books you'll ever read. To give you a taste, "The laws of nature require the obliteration of the unfit and human life is valuable only when it is of use to the community or race" (259).

Charity is declared evil, since "it was better that the cold and hungry be left without help, so that the eugenically superior strains could multiple without competition from 'the unfit'" (127). And "referred to the lower classes and the unfit as 'human waste' not worthy of show more assistance, and proudly quoted the extreme eugenic view that human 'weeds' should be 'exterminated'" (127). The first president of Stanford University argued that the poor should be sterilized. I agree with the other reviewer that it should be mandatory reading, perhaps in around 7th grade. I need to think more to do this review.

I was shocked by the names that occur in here, such as Kellogg, Alexander Graham Bell, Carnegie Hall, the Rockefeller Foundation, Margaret Sanger, H.G. Wells, Irving Fischer, and so on. Modern framing of debate can be understood as descending in significant part from the eugenics movement. Immigration rhetoric, school performance testing, testing and standardized norms as gatekeepers to social resources such as universities, war rhetoric, and political division over redistribution of resources all can been seen in a new perspective after reading this book.

If you've ever found the genocide and monstrocities commited during WW2 to be unfathomable, this book makes WW2 genocide fathomable. It shows how deviance was defined and redefined. This book doesn't hold back either. You get taken all the way from the pearly pampered gates of acadamia spewing hatred down down down into the eugenic death doctors of WW2 concentration camps, and through grisly human medical experimentation. There is a shot of the face of Josef Mengele. One of the saddest books you'll ever read. show less

This book was at first facinating, then appalling and finally horrifying. It could just as easily be called How IBM Built Nazi Germany. causing WWII. It says volumes about the ethics of Capatolism without Christ and the lessons learned can easily be applied to Google, Nike, Facebook and other multinational corporations today. Hitler could not have built the Reich, run the war or killed the Jews with out the concerted effort of IBM to make as much money as possible. Money was always the first show more and usually the only order of business. show less

Thomas Watson, as the CEO of IBM, and the majority shareholder of IBM’s German subsidiary Dehomag, paid little or no attention to the plight of Germany’s Jews and accepted the Merit Cross of the German Eagle with Star from Hitler himself in 1937. The award was for the company’s work in supplying Germany with IBM punch card reading machines - the computers of the day. The machines were used throughout the German government, including the Reichsbahn, the Luftwaffe, the Wehrmacht, the show more concentration camps themselves, and for a series of German racial censuses designed mostly to identify converted, non-observant or distant relatives of German Jews. In some camps, the punch card data included forms of torture used. The author and his researchers found letters, public statements and published articles indicating that Dehomag and IBM were completely aware of the uses of their machines. In fact, Watson strove to acquire and expand these contracts, and IBM made huge profits from them. He had to go through many convoluted legal paths to get his money out of Germany, convince the Nazis that Dehomag was not an American company and that his profits were royalties and not subject to taxation. IBM’s profits increased dramatically with the invasion of Germany’s neighbors. IBM assisted the Nazi war effort and the efficient operation of the Holocaust right up to December 7, 1941, after that date, Dehomag was run partly by the German government. IBM continued to operate in occupied Europe through their Geneva office until they were, country by country, legally prohibited from doing so. IBM concealed as much of this information as they could, and hypocritically advertised about how patriotic they were during the war.

Is any of this a surprise? I’d heard about this book, but the totality of the story is shocking.
I now recoil when I hear what new use IBM has selected for their Jeopardy-winning supercomputer “Watson”. I suppose they’ve removed the swastika from it. There were other well-known Americans who either did or would have accepted medals from Hitler. After all, should we be more reluctant to buy a car that was designed (supposedly) by Hitler himself and made by slaves, or from the American company that advised them how to do it (https://mondediplo.com/1998/01/11volkswag)? The failure or inability of businesses and governments to respond to genocide is clear, both in history and in today’s newspaper. What have the governments of the developed world done for the Rohingya -- and what can they do?

Sadly, for the reader of this book, the substance of the story is laid out in the introduction. Reading the rest can be a slog. And personally, I wanted to know exactly how these machines worked. There are occasional technical paragraphs, the instruments could add, or sort, or alphabetize, but this book needs an appendix with diagrams and clear technical explanations. I thought that the machines themselves were an important part of the story.
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I read a used hardbound copy of this book. I’ve heard that the paperback version is a second edition that has additional information and corrections show less