Science and the Common Man in Ante-Bellum America

Zochert, Donald

doi:10.1086/351340

Cited by 24 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Scientific lectures, articles, and even pieces of poetry eulogizing science were widely featured. As science historian Donald Zochert explains, nineteenth century newspapers were the predominant form of scientific dissemination being “both the molder and the mirror of popular attitudes toward science” (Zochert , 449). It was during this period that a democratization of scientific thought occurred in America with the newspaper as a primary conduit to the common man.…”

Section: The Community's Engagement With Scientific Thoughtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stirpiculture: Science‐guided Human Propagation and the Oneida Community

Prince¹

2017

Zygon

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Between 1869 and 1879, the communal Christian group the Oneida Community undertook a pioneering eugenics experiment called "stirpiculture" in upstate New York. Stirpiculture resulted in the planned conception, birth, and communal rearing of fifty-eight children, bred from selected members of the Oneida Community. This article concerns how the Oneida Community's unique approach to religion and science provided the framework for the creation, process, and eventual dissolution of the stirpiculture experiment. The work seeks to expand current understanding of the early history of eugenics in the United States by placing its practice more than two decades earlier than is generally considered. Additionally, this article situates the Community's leader John Humphrey Noyes as an early eugenics and social scientific thinker. Finally, the treatment provides a case study for the transitional period in mid to late nineteenth century America whereby scientific modes of epistemology were accommodated within or supplanted by theological worldviews.

show abstract

Section: The Community's Engagement With Scientific Thoughtmentioning

confidence: 99%