Mary Antin’s Progressive Science: Eugenics, Evolution, and the Environment

While Mary Antin’s best-selling autobiography The Promised Land (1912) often has been considered an immigrant success story that celebrates assimilation, Antin’s texts reveal criticism of the America she observed and a desire to reshape rather than merely assimilate into it. This essay demonstrates that Antin wrote as a Progressive activist, who believed that scientific research and legislative reform could bring positive social change, including protecting and improving living conditions for immigrants. Examining Antin’s writing in the context of historical scientific debates surrounding immigration enables a more thorough understanding of her struggle to legitimize her position both racially and culturally in American society. This essay clarifies the ways in which the scientific theories concerning eugenics and the environment, along with evolution, became significant factors in her rhetorical design. Strategically incorporating the discourses of eugenics, evolution, and environmental reform, Antin became a Progressive champion for immigrants.