"Wendy Kline's lucid cultural history of eugenics in America emphasizes the movement's central, continuing interaction with notions of gender and morality. Demonstrating that eugenic ideas were far more powerful in public discourse than other historians have indicated, Kline shows how eugenics could have seemed a viable solution to problems of moral disorder and sexuality, especially female sexuality, during the first half of the twentieth century.

Its appeal to social conscience and shared desires to strengthen the family and civilization sparked popular as well as scientific interest."--BOOK JACKET.