Hormones, Heredity, and Race: Spectacular Failure in Interwar Vienna

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS When years ago, as a graduate student, I read Arthur Koestler’s The Case of the Midwife Toad I was persuaded by its tale of how a well-meaning scientist had been framed and maybe even murdered by his enemies. Today, after a wonderful intellectual journey, I know better than to accept the simplicity of heroes and villains in history. But that knowledge has come with the often unwitting help of many individuals to whom I am greatly indebted. My interest was piqued many years ago by Merle B. Turner. And I could not have realized it without the tolerance and openness of my colleagues in the Departments of Psychology and History at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. For years, they tolerated my wanderings into the history of the life sciences, often with no clear end in sight. I owe special gratitude to the late Gilbert Gottlieb, and to Timothy Johnston , Kenneth Caneva, Ronald Cassell, and Karl Schleunes. Discussions and debates with many other colleagues have also shaped my thinking and my approach. I would not have become a “real” historian without the caring help of my great friend Sharon Salinger, who always provided moral, academic, and substantive encouragement. I am also grateful for the support of Mitchell Ash and Richard Burian. This project profited enormously from extended discussions with many colleagues, especially including Mitchell Ash, Sander Gliboff, and Veronika Hofer. I am also grateful for valuable input from Margit Berner, Malachi Hacohen, Michael Hubenstorf, Sarah Jansen, Andreas Lixl, Wolfgang Maderthaner, Arndt Niebisch, Klaus Taschwer, Sarah Wagner, and the members of the old UNCG German Studies Group. The chance to share ideas in the classroom with students also clarified my thinking on many, many issues. Colleagues and students have far more impact than they know. Laura Edwards, George Michel, Joan Paluzzi, Sharon Salinger, and Karl Schleunes provided extremely constructive comments on earlier drafts of several chapters. They gave me valuable time and offered great suggestions. Generous advice on numerous translations from the original German was patiently provided by Andreas Lixl, Arndt Niebisch, and Susanne Rinner; and Paul Silvia and the UNCG Agraphia group kept me going amid moments of polygraphic confusion. I am grateful to all. Thanks are also due to an anonymous reviewer x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS for excellent suggestions on the book’s concepts and structure and to Marsha Richmond for an extremely helpful reading of the entire work. My editor, Peter Mikulas, at Rutgers University Press has been a boon throughout. He offered clear suggestions for revision at various points, saw me through several problems , offered terrific encouragement, and in the process greatly improved the final work. And Margaret Case provided especially careful help in polishing the final product. My gratitude to all, of course, implies no responsibility for any remaining errors. All are of my own making. Financial support for the project was provided by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Scholars Program, the UNCG Research Assignments Program, the UNCG International Programs Center, and the UNCG Kohler Fund. They made it possible to conduct research at archives in Austria and the United States. The staff and administration of several libraries and archives provided important information that I might never have found without their help. I am especially grateful to Roy Goodman and Valerie-Anne Lutz at the American Philosophical Society, Liana Zhou and Shawn Wilson at the Kinsey Institute, Karl Sablik and Manfred Skopec at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, and Arlene Shaner at the New York Academy of Medicine. The staffs of the Vienna Rathaus Library, the Rockefeller Archives, the Austrian National Library, and the University of Wisconsin Special Collections Department were also very helpful. Finally, I have been truly honored by the hospitality shown me by the William Tandler family and the Hugh Iltis family. Their generosity and insights were a special treat that helped me see “figures” as real people. They welcomed me into their homes and shared important documents and memorabilia as well as their lovely memories of Tandler, Kammerer, and Iltis. Hormones, Heredity, and Race ...