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'This may be the most dangerous thing Donald Trump believes’: eugenic populism and the American body politic
Version 2 2023-06-16, 09:46
Version 1 2023-06-13, 14:12
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-16, 09:46 authored by Sue CurrellThe 2016 election of a self-declared eugenicist to the most powerful political role in the world signified a widespread and worrying forgetting of America’s eugenic past. This essay shows how America’s current president employs similar rhetorical and fictive devices to those employed by eugenicists and politicians in the 1920s and 1930s, strategies that he now uses to fuel his supremacist fantasies. By linking up Trump’s lifelong belief in his genetic superiority (and thereby the apparent “truth” of eugenics more broadly) with earlier eugenic beliefs of the 1920s and 1930s, this paper explores how, despite being scientifically discredited, eugenics steadfastly remained a popular ideological staple of American meritocratic and supremacist belief.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Amerikastudien / American StudiesISSN
0340-2827Publisher
Universitätsverlag Winter, HeidelbergExternal DOI
Issue
2Volume
64Page range
291-302Department affiliated with
- English Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2020-01-10First Open Access (FOA) Date
2020-07-14First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2020-01-13Usage metrics
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