Fatal Misconception : The Struggle to Control World Population

Matthew Connelly

ISBN 10: 0674034600 / ISBN 13: 9780674034600

Published by Harvard University Press Nov 2009, 2009

About this Item

Neuware - Connelly tells the disturbing story of a quest to remake ourselves by policing national borders and breeding better people. With its transnational scope and exhaustive research, this critique uncovers the cost inflicted by a misguided humanitarian movement and urges renewed commitment to the reproductive rights of all people.

Seller Inventory # 9780674034600

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fatal Misconception : The Struggle to Control World Population
• Publisher: Harvard University Press Nov 2009
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674034600
• ISBN 13: 9780674034600
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 228W x 144H x 55D millimeters 228 millimeters width by 144 millimeters height by 55 millimeters depth
• Weight: 737 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Listen to a short interview with Matthew ConnellyHost: Chris Gondek - Producer: Heron & Crane

Fatal Misconception is the disturbing story of our quest to remake humanity by policing national borders and breeding better people. As the population of the world doubled once, and then again, well-meaning people concluded that only population control could preserve the "quality of life." This movement eventually spanned the globe and carried out a series of astonishing experiments, from banning Asian immigration to paying poor people to be sterilized.

Supported by affluent countries, foundations, and non-governmental organizations, the population control movement experimented with ways to limit population growth. But it had to contend with the Catholic Church's ban on contraception and nationalist leaders who warned of "race suicide." The ensuing struggle caused untold suffering for those caught in the middle--particularly women and children. It culminated in the horrors of sterilization camps in India and the one-child policy in China.

Matthew Connelly offers the first global history of a movement that changed how people regard their children and ultimately the face of humankind. It was the most ambitious social engineering project of the twentieth century, one that continues to alarm the global community. Though promoted as a way to lift people out of poverty--perhaps even to save the earth--family planning became a means to plan other people's families.

With its transnational scope and exhaustive research into such archives as Planned Parenthood and the newly opened Vatican Secret Archives, Connelly's withering critique uncovers the cost inflicted by a humanitarian movement gone terribly awry and urges renewed commitment to the reproductive rights of all people.

About the Author

Matthew Connelly is Professor of History, Columbia University.