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HomeVideoChapter 1 | The Eugenics Crusade

Chapter 1 | The Eugenics Crusade

Preview the beginning of THE EUGENICS CRUSADE.

THE EUGENICS CRUSADE premieres Tuesday, October 16 at 9/8c on PBS. Learn more and find where to watch the full film at https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/eugenics-crusade/

A hybrid derived from the Greek words meaning “well” and “born,” the term eugenics was coined in 1883 by Sir Francis Galton, a British cousin to Charles Darwin, to name a new “science” through which human beings might take charge of their own evolution. The Eugenics Crusade tells the story of the unlikely –– and largely unknown –– movement that turned the fledgling scientific theory of heredity into a powerful instrument of social control.