Situating eugenics: Robert DeCourcy Ward and the Immigration Restriction League of Boston

摘要

Recently historians of eugenics have turned their attention toward the locations where eugenics was disseminated and practiced. Continuing in this tradition, this article investigates the role of the Harvard geographer and climatologist Robert DeCourcy Ward as a leading member of the Immigration Restriction League of Boston between 1893 and 1921. I argue that the cultural history of the New England region and the evolving political and social landscape shaped eugenic thinking and thus 'restrictionist' discourse. In that sense, eugenic proclamations can be studied geographically as they often reflect the political and social conventions of their place and time. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.