Racial Hygiene

By Robert N. Proctor,

Book cover of Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis

Book description

Scholars exploring the history of science under the Nazis have generally concentrated on the Nazi destruction of science or the corruption of intellectual and liberal values. Racial Hygiene focuses on how scientists themselves participated in the construction of Nazi racial policy. Robert Proctor demonstrates that the common picture of a…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Racial Hygiene as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Science collapses when scientists ignore objectivity and unbiased analysis, and Robert N. Proctor argues this effectively in this book.

I had long assumed (incorrectly) that racial doctrine during the Third Reich came directly from Hitler, but many German scientists actively espoused racial policies with supposed scientific justification. It may be hard to accept that some scientists became sympathizers overnight, no doubt for their own welfare and survival.

Proctor illustrates that pure science can be adapted for evil intent and that a self-centered agenda can result in illegitimate outcomes. 

This World War II book on Nazi racial "science" opened my eyes to the corruption of science to serve the nefarious purposes of Nazi racial policy.

For me, this book was deeply informative in a medical humanities sense. Robert Proctor has provided a service to readers and to the historical record by bringing this story to light with such a clear and careful rendering of the facts.  

From Robert's list on books where history meets mystery.

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