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(1 reviews) Author: Nathaniel Comfort ISBN : 9780300169911 New from $27.44 Format: PDF
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“Comfort explains how eugenics became part of medicine, and how medical and human genetics therefore derive in large part from eugenics. The great strength of this book is to work this through agnostically and calmly.”—Alison Bashford, The University of Sydney (Alison Bashford 2012-03-13)
"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."—Alexandra Stern, University of Michigan
(Alexandra Stern 2012-03-16)"This is a rich and important book, laced with lively vignettes and provocative judgments, Comfort 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."—Daniel J. Kevles, Stanley Woodward Professor of History, Yale University, and author of In the Name of Eugenics
(Daniel J. Kevles 2012-05-01)"Nathaniel Comfort – 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!"—Arno G. Motulsky, author of Vogel and Motulsky, Human Genetics, 4th Edition, 2010
(Arno G. Motulsky 2012-05-01)“A well-balanced consideration of both the promise and problems involved in the scientific search for human betterment.”—Kirkus Reviews
(Kirkus Reviews)“[An] intriguing history…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.”
—Publishers Weekly
(Publishers Weekly)—Publishers Weekly
“[A] beautifully written account of how genes became central to American medicine.”—Science
(Science) “Other books. . . have traced portions of the history of genetics, but none have put together the whole story in the way that Comfort has.”—Choice
(Choice)“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 workers’ correspondence with each other and through the oral histories. It is their internal history, informed by records of the workers’ own thoughts, feelings, and words. And it suggests a new approach to the history of eugenics.”—Pauline M. H. Mazumdar, Bulletin of the History of Medicine
(Pualine M. H. Mazumdar Bulletin of the History of Medicine)“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.”—Stephen Pemberton, Isis
(Stephen Pemberton Isis)“[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 – published scientific and technical papers, personal papers and popular writings – 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.”—Neeraja Sankaran, Journal of the History of Biology
(Neeraja Sankaran Journal of the History of Biology) 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.
- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Yale University Press; 1 edition (September 25, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0300169914
- ISBN-13: 978-0300169911
- Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 7.3 x 9.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
The Science of Human Perfection PDF
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I had no grand expectations for this book on the history of medical genetics, an area which I knew nothing about and wasn't particularly interested in. Nathaniel Comfort got me interested very quickly. I don't typically put much in Amazon book reviews regarding the book's actual content, because I don't want to give too much of the book away. However, for this book, I must make an exception, because its construction, philosophy, and historiography are fascinating, and are necessary to the explanation of what is fascinating about the book.
The book's philosophy is an intriguing one, which shows a strong historical vein that runs through both eugenics AND medical genetics. Such a thesis can prove dangerous very quickly, as one might imagine, but Comfort is very careful about how he does this, avoiding normativity to lay out the facts and draw upon isomorphisms between the disciplines, and grounding both in an historical tension that exists between Garrodian theory and Galtonian theory. This is a heterodox and original take on genetics, the thesis being that there is struggle between the biometrics and population of Galton, on the one hand, and the biochemical and individual (i.e. particular organism), on the other. From this philosophical starting point, Comfort traces an history that sees Johns Hopkins University as central, in many respects, to the formal codification and professionalization of the discipline of medical genetics. Comfort considers the politics, economics, social aspects, institutional formation, and prevailing scientific themes.
Maybe the only complaint I have is how little there is in the way of actual science in the book, but that increases the accessibility of the work, I think.
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