Overview

For thousands of years, people have tried to rank each other according to perceived superiority or inferiority. This tendency reached its peak in the first half of the twentieth century in the eugenics movement, in which adherents called upon genetics and natural selection to lend scientific credibility to an age-old argument. Although eugenics began as an honest scientific attempt to understand the differences between individuals, nations, and races, it was hijacked by politics and used to justify all manner of objectionable acts. At its best, eugenics was seen as a way to improve humanity and the human condition. At its worst, it was a way for political ideologues and tyrants to justify oppressing those held to be inferior.

Background

One of the earliest mentions of inherent differences between groups of people...