Synopses & Reviews
Almost daily we hear news stories, advertisements, and scientific reports promising that genetic medicine will make us live longer, enable doctors to identify and treat diseases before they harm us, and individualize our medical care. But surprisingly, a century ago eugenicists were making the same promises. This book traces the history of the promises of medical genetics and of the medical dimension of eugenics. While mindful of the benefits of genetic medicine, the book also considers social and ethical issues that cast troublesome shadows over these fields.
Keeping his focus on America, Nathaniel Comfort introduces the community of scientists, physicians, and public health workers who have contributed to the development of medical genetics from the nineteenth century to today. He argues that medical genetics is closely related to eugenics, and indeed that the two cannot be fully understood separately. He also carefully examines how the desire to relieve suffering and to improve ourselves genetically, though noble, may be subverted. History makes clear that as patients and consumers we must take ownership of genetic medicine, using it intelligently, knowledgeably, and skeptically.
Review
and#8220;Comfort explains how eugenics became part of medicine, and how medical and human genetics therefore derive in large part from eugenics.and#160; The great strength of this book is to work this through agnostically and calmly.and#8221;and#8212;Alison Bashford, The University of Sydneyand#160;
Review
"Comfort's compelling narrative transforms our understanding of the history of human genetics in the United States. This book sheds penetrating light on how the simultaneously meritorious and fraught goals of biological improvement and of the alleviation of physical suffering have driven the development of genetic science."and#8212;Alexandra Stern, University of Michigan
Review
"This is a rich and important book, laced with lively vignettes and provocative judgments, Comfortand#160; recounts with an unblinking eye the evolution of medical genetics from its origins in eugenics to the era of the genome. An absorbing and informative work."and#8212;Daniel J. Kevles, Stanley Woodward Professor of History, Yale University, and author of
In the Name of Eugenics and#160;
Review
"Nathaniel Comfort and#8211; an historian of medical genetics aims to demonstrate with extensive historical data that the rejection of eugenics when compared with modern medical genetics is not fully justified. A novel interpretation of the 100 year history of heredity and health in North America!"and#8212;Arno G. Motulsky, author of Vogel and Motulsky, Human Genetics, 4th Edition, 2010
Review
and#8220;A well-balanced consideration of both the promise and problems involved in the scientific search for human betterment.and#8221;and#8212;Kirkus Reviews
Review
andldquo;[An] intriguing historyandhellip;Comfort provides some complex food for thought about the balance between creating good for individuals and for the human species, and about the ways we define the methods we use.andrdquo;
andmdash;Publishers Weekly
Review
and#8220;[A] beautifully written account of how genes became central to American medicine.and#8221;and#8212;Scienceandnbsp;
Review
and#8220;Other books. . . have traced portions of the history of genetics, but none have put together the whole story in the way that Comfort has.and#8221;and#8212;
ChoiceReview
“This is the ideal scientific history.”
—Bulletin of the History of Medicine Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Review
and#8220;This is the ideal scientific history: details of the science itself are integrated with the intimate details of the extended family that made up the field generation by generation, through the workersand#8217; correspondence with each other and through the oral histories. It is their internal history, informed by records of the workersand#8217; own thoughts, feelings, and words. And it suggests a new approach to the history of eugenics.and#8221;and#8212;Pauline M. H. Mazumdar, Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Review
and#8220;Excellent . . . bears all the marks of an outstanding social and intellectual history of medical genetics . . . readers of this fine book will find [it] an accessible, yet nuanced, account.and#8221;and#8212;Stephen Pemberton, Isis
Review
and#8220;[I]t is always a joy to watch a skilled craftsman at work, and the pleasure in this case is doubled as Comfort wields the two crafts of doing history and of word-smithy with equal finesse. As a historian I was delighted to see so many different types of primary and secondary source materials and#8211; published scientific and technical papers, personal papers and popular writings and#8211; all in one place. I can already foresee assigning this book as a one-stop example in a historical methods course in the not-too-distant future.and#8221;and#8212;Neeraja Sankaran, Journal of the History of Biology
Review
and#8220;[A] whirlwind tour through twentieth-century human genetics.and#8221;and#8212;Nature Medicine
Review
Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2013 in theand#160;Health Sciences Category.
Review
"All in all, The Science of Human Perfection is a well-researched and well-written book; not only is it a pleasure to read, but it is also a necessary and vital contribution to our knowledge of genetic medicine and the social and political milieu where scientific ideas, past and present, arise and continue to develop."and#8212;Norberto Serpente, University College London
Synopsis
A thoughtful new look at the entwined histories of genetic medicine and eugenics, with probing discussion of the moral risks of seeking human perfection
Synopsis
History Within explores how the life sciences have contributed to public and popular history and to moral and political visions for a just society of the future. It shows how the sciences that deal with the evolutionary history of human groups and of humankind are powerful producers of origin narratives and experiences of kinship and belonging. Marianne Sommer looks at the collecting efforts of three key scientistsand#151;Henry Fairfield Osborn, Julian Huxley, and Luca-Luigi Cavalli-Sforzaand#151;that render the interactive creation of bio-historical knowledge possible in the first place and asks how their scientific data was translated into more broadly meaningful narratives, images, and exhibits. The bones, organisms, and molecules they studied acquire political value, she argues, in negotiations over issues of interpretation and how scientific results ought to be communicated to the public. History Within is an essential history of biology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
About the Author
Nathaniel Comfort is associate professor, Department of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, and a participant in The Oral History of Human Genetics project.