In this Book
- Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics, and the Legacy of Madison Grant
- Book
- 2009
- Published by: University Press of New England
summary
Scholars have labeled Madison Grant everything from the “nation’s most influential racist” to the “greatest conservationist that ever lived.” His life illuminates early twentieth-century America as it was heading toward the American Century, and his legacy is still very much with us today, from the speeches of immigrant-bashing politicians to the international efforts to arrest climate change. This insightful biography shows how Grant worked side-by-side with figures such as Theodore Roosevelt to found the Bronx Zoo, preserve the California redwoods, and save the American bison from extinction. But Grant was also the leader of the eugenics movement in the United States. He popularized the infamous notions that the blond-haired, blue-eyed Nordics were the “master race” and that the state should eliminate members of inferior races who were of no value to the community. Grant’s behind-the-scenes machinations convinced Congress to enact the immigration restriction legislation of the 1920s, and his influence led many states to ban interracial marriage and sterilize thousands of “unworthy” citizens. Although most of the relevant archival materials on Madison Grant have mysteriously disappeared over the decades, Jonathan Spiro has devoted many years to reconstructing the hitherto concealed events of Grant’s life. His astonishing feat of detective work reveals how the founder of the Bronx Zoo wound up writing the book that Adolf Hitler declared was his “bible.”
Table of Contents
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- Introduction
- pp. xi-xvi
- Chapter 1: Big-Game Hunter
- pp. 3-30
- Chapter 2: The Bronx Zoo
- pp. 31-51
- Chapter 4: Wildlife Management
- pp. 73-87
- Chapter 5: From Mammals to Man
- pp. 88-116
- Chapter 6: The Eugenics Creed
- pp. 117-140
- Part 2: Conserving the Nordics
- pp. 141-293
- Chapter 7: The Passing of the Great Race
- pp. 143-166
- Chapter 8: Grant's Disciples
- pp. 167-195
- Chapter 9: Creating the Refuge
- pp. 196-233
- Chapter 10: Culling the Herd
- pp. 234-265
- Chapter 11: Saving the Redwoods
- pp. 266-293
- Part 3: Extinction
- Chapter 12: Nordic and Anti-Nordic
- pp. 297-327
- Chapter 13: The Empire Crumbles
- pp. 328-354
- Epilogue: The Passing of the Great Patrician
- pp. 384-390
- Key to Archival Collections
- pp. 397-400
- Works Cited
- pp. 443-466
Additional Information
ISBN
9781584658108
Related ISBN(s)
9781584657156
MARC Record
OCLC
667076920
Pages
487
Launched on MUSE
2012-07-31
Language
English
Open Access
No