Posted by David Bernstein: Libeling H.L. Mencken: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_05_03-2009_05_09.shtml#1241561727
While working on something tangentially related, I've come across several "conservative" [1]books, [2]blog posts, and [3]articles accusing H.L. Mencken of being a eugenicist. The argument seems to be as follows: evolution is bad, and leads to eugenics; Mencken was a leading secularist and defender of evolution, as with his reporting from the "Scopes trial"; ergo, Mencken must have been a eugenicist. (It doesn't help, I suppose, that Mencken was an elitist and something of a misanthrope.) In fact, Mencken was one of the leading, and one of the few (!) prominent opponents of eugenics in its heyday. His American Mercury [4]published one of the first major scientific [5]critiques of eugenics. And Mencken consistently [6]rejected [7]eugenics in his own writings. References 1. http://books.google.com/books?id=nuRXy2uidroC&pg=PA214&lpg=PA214&dq=teachout+mencken+eugenics&source=bl&ots=Kut43b4oVv&sig=qyarBeJJW4mcKORFeXFCBQoOUqE&hl=en&ei=ObgASsGhCYmqtge52aCVBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 2. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/levin/427 3. http://eddriscoll.com/archives/008614.php 4. http://personal.uncc.edu/jmarks/eugenics/pearl.html 5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Pearl#Eugenics_and_politics 6. http://books.google.com/books?id=MzG7ORUmq4UC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=%22h+l+mencken%22+eugenics&source=bl&ots=xJAe0nsJOw&sig=WedLZO4-zO_k--D-yvBhN7xgR5Q&hl=en&ei=zLQASqdE3uC2B7n85YkH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#PPA91,M1 7. http://books.google.com/books?id=L5C25UHIfCAC&pg=PA50&lpg=PA50&dq=%22h+l+mencken%22+eugenics&source=bl&ots=2qSh4Li2K_&sig=V64XdEcoTAJK44uGFyXAmQ-8rZQ&hl=en&ei=LLoASvSEJYaEtwfGqvmPBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3 _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
