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  • Reproduction by Design: Sex, Robots, Trees, and Test-Tube Babies in Interwar Britain by Angus McLaren
  • Maria Björkman (bio)
Reproduction by Design: Sex, Robots, Trees, and Test-Tube Babies in Interwar Britain. By Angus McLaren. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012. Pp. viii+235. $55.

Angus McLaren is a nestor in the field of the history of sexuality, the author of influential books on masculinity, contraceptives, and impotence. In this new work he deals with the technocultural aspects of reproduction in relation to modernity. This makes the book interesting for historians of technology and science, historians of eugenics, and a wide range of STS scholars.

During the modernization process in interwar Britain, the Darwinian idea of leaving nature and human reproduction alone was replaced with a new discourse: both nature and human reproduction needed to be assisted by design. This discourse grew influential in a time when new medical and technological possibilities arose, and when social changes such as the emancipation of women and a wider use of birth control methods became [End Page 415] challenging for traditional society. McLaren explains how reproduction became the key site in public discussions and debates of the pros and cons of modern society. In doing so, he undertakes the study of an area hitherto partly neglected or overlooked in the history of British eugenics and sexuality. It is true, as stated by historians of eugenics, that Britain did not launch any sterilization act. But if one instead studies the vast impact that eugenics had on public debate through literature and culture, this leads to a more nuanced understanding of how deeply entangled eugenics was in the discussions of modernity, reproduction, endocrinology, sexology, and environmentalism.

McLaren deals with these discussions by drawing on written work by medical scientists, biologists, psychiatrists, sexologists, and eugenicists, as well as on a wide range of fiction: novels, sci-fi, and theater. In doing so, it becomes clear that not only the professional writers and intellectuals of the time, but also the practitioners and scientists, took part in writing a modernist "science fiction," envisioning future utopian or dystopian societies.

The first part of the book deals with mechanistic progress in modernist, speculative literature. The three chapters include one about futurist fiction, one about automobiles, and one about robots. The futurist fiction writers discussed biology and reproduction in relation to principles of mass production. Mass production was seen as a challenge to traditional sexual and gender relations. These questions were addressed by Aldous and Julian Huxley, J. B. S. and Charlotte Haldane, H. G. Wells, Dora Russell, and Enid Charles, among others. The chapter on cars deals with their influence in changing existing gender relations and ultimately reproduction. The robot chapter shows how mass-society fears were discussed using robot metaphors.

The second part discusses the role of hormones in eugenics as a bearer of hope for assisting reproduction as well as enhancing human effectiveness. The test-tube discussions (e.g., artificial insemination) also included eugenic concerns, both in the aftermath of war with its population losses, and as positive eugenics aimed at infertile but otherwise fit individuals.

The third part deals with environmentalists, conservationists, and ruralist connections to deep eugenic beliefs, both in attempts to support the "regeneration" of the countryside, and to support anti-urbanist movements. In the ruralists' views, the foremost representative of a healthy population was the "country-man"; consequently, a purification of the "gene pool" needed to also contain a purification of nature.

McLaren's book is well-written and gives the page-turning pleasure of reading a plethora of seemingly anecdotal accounts that never become anecdotal, because they are always placed in a rich and elaborated context. However, I miss a more thorough discussion of the influence and power exerted by these subjects. Even if they did not result in sterilization laws, [End Page 416] what did they produce? And what was their influence? And throughout my reading, I also could not keep from wondering what marvels might have come from this study if McLaren had invited some of the feminist science and technology scholars into his discussions. His wonderfully told history would probably have benefited from these scholars' frequent dealings...

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