Imbeciles
The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck
Artikel konnten nicht hinzugefügt werden
Leider können wir den Artikel nicht hinzufügen, da Ihr Warenkorb bereits seine Kapazität erreicht hat.
Der Titel konnte nicht zum Warenkorb hinzugefügt werden.
Bitte versuchen Sie es später noch einmal
Der Titel konnte nicht zum Merkzettel hinzugefügt werden.
Bitte versuchen Sie es später noch einmal
„Von Wunschzettel entfernen“ fehlgeschlagen.
Bitte versuchen Sie es später noch einmal
„Podcast folgen“ fehlgeschlagen
„Podcast nicht mehr folgen“ fehlgeschlagen
0,00 € im Probezeitraum
BEFRISTETES ANGEBOT
Nur 0,99 € pro Monat für die ersten 3 Monate
Das Angebot endet am 29. Januar 2026 23:59 Uhr. Es gelten die Audible Nutzungsbedingungen.
Bist du Amazon Prime-Mitglied?Audible 60 Tage kostenlos testen
Für die ersten drei Monate erhältst du die Audible-Mitgliedschaft für nur 0,99 € pro Monat.
Pro Monat bekommst du ein Guthaben für einen beliebigen Titel aus unserem gesamten Premium-Angebot. Dieser bleibt für immer in deiner Bibliothek.
Höre tausende enthaltene Hörbücher, Audible-Originale, Podcasts und vieles mehr.
Pausiere oder kündige dein Abo monatlich.
Aktiviere das kostenlose Probeabo mit der Option, monatlich flexibel zu pausieren oder zu kündigen.
Nach dem Probemonat bekommst du eine vielfältige Auswahl an Hörbüchern, Kinderhörspielen und Original Podcasts für 9,95 € pro Monat.
Wähle monatlich einen Titel aus dem Gesamtkatalog und behalte ihn.
Imbeciles
Gesprochen von:
Dan Woren
Für 20,95 € kaufen
-
Gesprochen von:
-
Dan Woren
-
Von:
-
Adam Cohen
Über diesen Titel
One of America’s great miscarriages of justice, the Supreme Court’s infamous 1927 Buck v. Bell ruling made government sterilization of “undesirable” citizens the law of the land
In 1927, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling so disturbing, ignorant, and cruel that it stands as one of the great injustices in American history. In Imbeciles, bestselling author Adam Cohen exposes the court’s decision to allow the sterilization of a young woman it wrongly thought to be “feebleminded” and to champion the mass eugenic sterilization of undesirable citizens for the greater good of the country. The 8–1 ruling was signed by some of the most revered figures in American law—including Chief Justice William Howard Taft, a former U.S. president; and Louis Brandeis, a progressive icon. Oliver Wendell Holmes, considered by many the greatest Supreme Court justice in history, wrote the majority opinion, including the court’s famous declaration “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”
Imbeciles is the shocking story of Buck v. Bell, a legal case that challenges our faith in American justice. A gripping courtroom drama, it pits a helpless young woman against powerful scientists, lawyers, and judges who believed that eugenic measures were necessary to save the nation from being “swamped with incompetence.” At the center was Carrie Buck, who was born into a poor family in Charlottesville, Virginia, and taken in by a foster family, until she became pregnant out of wedlock. She was then declared “feebleminded” and shipped off to the Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded.
Buck v. Bell unfolded against the backdrop of a nation in the thrall of eugenics, which many Americans thought would uplift the human race. Congress embraced this fervor, enacting the first laws designed to prevent immigration by Italians, Jews, and other groups charged with being genetically inferior.
Cohen shows how Buck arrived at the colony at just the wrong time, when influential scientists and politicians were looking for a “test case” to determine whether Virginia’s new eugenic sterilization law could withstand a legal challenge. A cabal of powerful men lined up against her, and no one stood up for her—not even her lawyer, who, it is now clear, was in collusion with the men who wanted her sterilized.
In the end, Buck’s case was heard by the Supreme Court, the institution established by the founders to ensure that justice would prevail. The court could have seen through the false claim that Buck was a threat to the gene pool, or it could have found that forced sterilization was a violation of her rights. Instead, Holmes, a scion of several prominent Boston Brahmin families, who was raised to believe in the superiority of his own bloodlines, wrote a vicious, haunting decision upholding Buck’s sterilization and imploring the nation to sterilize many more.
Holmes got his wish, and before the madness ended some sixty to seventy thousand Americans were sterilized. Cohen overturns cherished myths and demolishes lauded figures in relentless pursuit of the truth. With the intellectual force of a legal brief and the passion of a front-page exposé, Imbeciles is an ardent indictment of our champions of justice and our optimistic faith in progress, as well as a triumph of American legal and social history.
Noch keine Rezensionen vorhanden