Marius Turda is the author of The Idea of National Superiority in Central Europe, 1880-1918 (2005); Eugenism si antropologie rasiala in Romania, 1874-1944 (2008); Modernism and Eugenics (2010); Eugenics and Nation in Early Twentieth Century Hungary (2014); Eugenism si Modernitate. Natiune, rasa si biopolitica in Europa, 1870-1950 (2014) and Idea de superioritate nationala in Imperiul Austro-Ungar (2016). He is the co-author of Latin Eugenics in Comparative Perspective (2014) and Historicizing Race (2018). He is he co-editor of Anti-Modernism: Radical Revisions of Collective Identity (2014); Health, Hygiene and Eugenics in Southeastern Europe to 1945 (2011); Race Ascendant: Framing Physical Anthropology in Central and Southeastern Europe (2010); Re-Contextualising East Central European History. Nation, Culture and Minority Groups (2010); Blood and Homeland: Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900-1940 (2007); and Clerical Fascism in Interwar Europe (2008). He is the editor of The History of Eugenics in East-Central Europe, 1900-1945: Texts and Commentaries (2015). His main areas of interest include the history of eugenics, ethnic utopias, racism, Holocaust and anthropology. He is also interested in nationalism and debates on national identity in Central and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on Hungary and Romania. At the moment he is working on a history of race and eugenics in interwar Hungary to be published by Bloomsbury in 2018.
„Războiul sfânt” al rasei: eugenia și protecția națiunii în Ungaria. 1900-1919, 2020
Această carte încearcă să contrabalanseze ignorarea sistematică de către istoriografia maghiară a... more Această carte încearcă să contrabalanseze ignorarea sistematică de către istoriografia maghiară a întregii dezbateri asupra diverselor teorii eugenice de îmbunătățire națională din ultimele două decenii ale Monarhiei Austro-Ungare. Era necesar un studiu detaliat despre interpretările eugenice din Ungaria începutului de secol XX, pentru a înțelege mai bine ceea ce a fost, la urma urmei, un proiect cu mult mai răspândit atât la nivel european, cât și global, și anume extinderea atribuțiilor biologice ale statului modern. Eugenia modernă și-a tras seva din asocierea teoriilor evoluționiste și a cercetării științifice privind ereditatea umană cu criticile sociale, culturale și naționaliste ale modernității. În mod corespunzător, eugeniştii au abordat nu numai subiecte științifice legate de mecanismele eredității și evoluției umane, ci și probleme specifice societății maghiare din acea perioadă. Această ideologie eugenică a urmărit astfel să ofere o viziune socială totalizantă, progresivă și rațională asupra prezentului, dar mai ales asupra viitorului societății maghiare moderne.
tudies in History and Philosophy of Biol & Biomed Sci, 2020
This article discusses the appropriation of Soviet science in Romania during the late 1940s. To a... more This article discusses the appropriation of Soviet science in Romania during the late 1940s. To achieve this, I discuss various publications on biology, anthropology, heredity and genetics. In a climate of major political change, following the end of the Second World War, all scientific fields in Romania were gradually subjected to political pressures to adapt and change according to a new ideological context. Yet the adoption of Soviet science during the late 1940s was not a straightforward process of scientific acculturation. Whilst the deference to Soviet authors remained consistent through most of Romanian scientific literature at the time, what is perhaps less visible is the attempt to refashion Romanian science itself in order to serve the country's new political imaginary and social transformation. Some Romanian biologists and physicians embraced Soviet scientific theories as a demonstration of their loyalty to the newly established regime. Others, however, were remained committed to local and Western scientific traditions they deemed essential to the survival of their discipline. A critical reassessment of the late 1940s is essential to an understanding of these dissensions as well as of the overall political and institutional constraints shaping the development of a new politics of science in communist Romania.
Science and Ethnicity II: Biopolitics and Eugenics in Romania, 1920-1944, 2019
Using material previously unseen by the general public this exhibition illustrates the extent to ... more Using material previously unseen by the general public this exhibition illustrates the extent to which national agenda re-defined scientific projects in Romania. The popularity of biopolitics and eugenics during the interwar and World War II periods is beyond question, but its wider national impact remains to be examined. Ultimately the exhibition encourages the general public and specialists alike to reflect on these ideas critically, whilst, at the same time, acknowledging the central role biopolitics and eugenics played in shaping Romanian history between 1920 and 1944.
This book engages with the relationship between religion, evolution and heredity, by bringing tog... more This book engages with the relationship between religion, evolution and heredity, by bringing together two of its aspects that are frequently discussed separately: Darwinism and eugenics. It also demonstrates that religion has played a greater role in shaping modern debates on evolution and human improvement than current scholarship has previously acknowledged. Drawing on examples provided by Britain, Italy and Portugal across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the present study provides a fresh discussion of seminal topics such as reproduction, parenthood, the control of population and ideas of human improvement based on eugenics and genetics, which intersected and, at times, dominated the much broader debate between science and religion reignited by the publication of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Ştiinţă şi etnicitate. Cercetarea antropologică în România anilor '30, 2018
Cercetările antropologice din perioada interbelică nu sunt cunoscute publicului larg. Nu se preda... more Cercetările antropologice din perioada interbelică nu sunt cunoscute publicului larg. Nu se predau la școală sau la universitate, iar semnificația lor istorică, politică și socială este puțin înțeleasă astăzi. Poate și mai grav, majoritatea istoricilor din România nu sunt interesați în istoria antropologiei; iar cei care cunosc anumite aspecte legate de cercetările antropologice din perioada interbelică le identifică adesea cu rasismul de tip nazist. Această carte și expoziţia pe care se bazează încearcă să schimbe anumite concepţii despre istoria naţională și să educe generaţiile mai tinere despre subiecte care sunt dificile, însă esenţiale, pentru a înţelege dezbaterile despre naţiune din perioada interbelică.
The idea of race may be outdated, as many commentators and scholars, working in a broad range of ... more The idea of race may be outdated, as many commentators and scholars, working in a broad range of different fields in the sciences and humanities, have argued over many years. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most persistent forms of human classification. Theories of race primitivism (the idea that there is a 'natural' racial hierarchy and ranking order of 'inferior' and 'superior' races), race biologism (the belief that people can be classified by genetic features which are shared by members of racial groups), and race essentialism (the notion that races can be defined by scientifically identifiable and verifiable cultural and physical characteristics) are deeply embedded in modern history, culture and politics.
Historicizing Race offers a new understanding of this reality by exploring the interconnectedness of scientific, cultural and political strands of racial thought in Europe and elsewhere. It re-conceptualises the idea of race by unearthing various historical traditions that continue to inform not only current debates about individual and collective identities, but also national and international politics. In a concise format, accessible to students and scholars alike, the authors draw out some of the reasons why race-centred thinking has, in recent years, re-emerged in such shocking and explicit form in current populist, xenophobic, and anti-immigration movements.
De ce este România astfel? Avatarurile excepţionalismului românesc, 2017
in Vintila Mihailescu, ed., De ce este România astfel? Avatarurile excepţionalismului românesc (I... more in Vintila Mihailescu, ed., De ce este România astfel? Avatarurile excepţionalismului românesc (Iasi: Polirom, 2017), pp. 108-125.
Latin eugenics was a scientific, cultural and political programme designed to biologically empowe... more Latin eugenics was a scientific, cultural and political programme designed to biologically empower modern European and American nations once commonly described as 'Latin', sharing genealogical, linguistic, religious, and cultural origins.
Latin Eugenics in Comparative Perspective offers a comparative, nuanced approach to eugenics as a scientific programme as well as a cultural and political phenomenon. It examines the commonalities of eugenics in 'Latin' Europe and Latin America. As a program to achieve the social and political goals of modern welfare systems, Latin eugenics strongly influenced the complex relationship of the state to the individual. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources in many languages, this book offers the first history of Latin eugenics in Europe and the Americas.
The History of East-Central European Eugenics, 1900-1945 redefines the European history of eugeni... more The History of East-Central European Eugenics, 1900-1945 redefines the European history of eugenics by exploring the ideological transmission of eugenics internationally and its application locally in East-Central Europe. Using 100 primary sources translated from the East-Central European languages into English for the first time, in addition to the key contributions of leading scholars in the field from around Europe, this book examines the main eugenic organisations, as well as individuals and policies that shaped eugenics in Austria, Poland, former Czechoslovakia, former Yugoslavia, Hungary and Romania. It also explores the ways in which ethnic minorities interacted with national and international eugenics discourses to advance their own aims and ambitions, whilst providing a comparative analysis of the emergence and development of eugenics in East-Central Europe more generally.
Twenty years after the fall of Communism, scholarship on East Central Europe has adopted mainstre... more Twenty years after the fall of Communism, scholarship on East Central Europe has adopted mainstream western methodologies, but remains preoccupied with a narrow range of themes. Nationalism, identity, fin-de-siècle art and culture, and revisionist historiography dominate the field to the detriment of other subjects. Using a variety of lenses — literary, political, linguistic, medical — the authors address a conspectus of original themes, including Jewish literary life in interwar Romania; the Galician ‘Alphabet War’; and Saxon eugenics in Transylvania. These case studies transcend their East Central European context by engaging with conceptually broad questions. This volume additionally contains a comprehensive Introduction and topical Bibliography of use to students and teachers, resulting in one of the most creative collections of studies dealing with East Central Europe to date.
This volume has its roots in an interdisciplinary seminar at the University of Oxford, bringing together emerging and established scholars, with the explicit aim of broadening the study of this region, its history and culture beyond the established paradigms. Robert Pyrah, a Junior Research Fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, is a specialist on theatre and cultural politics in the post-Habsburg context; Marius Turda is founder of the International Working Group on the History of Race and Eugenics based at Oxford Brookes University.
Re-Contextualising East Central European History was published with the support of the The Berendel Foundation, and was launched at the Foundation’s inaugural conference in Oxford on 9 September 2010.
With the contributions: James A. Kapalo — Clerical Agency and the Politics of Scriptural Translation: The ‘Canonization’ of the Gagauz Language in Southern Bessarabia Marija Petrović — Between Loyalty, Tradition, and Change: The Karlovci Gymnasium in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, 1917–1929 Eric Beckett Weaver — ‘More Hungarian Hungarians, More Human Humans’: Social and National Discourse on Hungarian Minorities in the Interwar Period Tudor Georgescu — Pursuing the Fascist Promise: The Transylvanian Saxon ‘Self-Help’ from Genesis to Empowerment, 1922–1935 R. Chris Davis — Nationalizing the Moldavian Csangos: Clericalism and Ethnic Mobilization in World War II Romania and Hungary Camelia Crăciun — ‘Writing from Within’: Jewish Romanian Writers on Jewish Life in Interwar Romania Jan Fellerer — Ukrainian Galicia at the Crossroads: The ‘Ruthenian Alphabet War’ of 1834 Nicolette Makovicky — ‘Folk-lingerie’ and Other New Traditions: Górale Cultural Entrepreneurialism on the Margins of Poland Maria Bucur — How to Tell the Story of your Grandparents? Ethical Dilemmas of Postmemory Robert J. W. Evans — Afterword
Reviews:
‘The essays in this collection are original and promise much for the future of scholarship on the region... Important matters are at stake here, including the professional historian’s relationship with the public and the memory industry (booming in East Central Europe), and the extent to which national narratives of heroism and victimhood obscure both the complexity of the past and the histories of minorities and non-national groups.’ — John Paul Newman, Modern Language Review 107.1, January 2012, 261-63 ‘All in all, then, this is an impressive volume—a shade formidable, I would say, in respect of its user unfriendliness (acres of text on the page and a rather intrusive accumulation of translations and references in the body of the text)—but impressive for all that.’ — John Took, Modern Language Review 107.1, January 2012, 290-92 ‘A snapshot of the research interests of scholars who are producing genuinely innovative research on topics which have been largely overlooked in the existing English language scholarship... also contains an extensive selected bibliography of the key recent publications on the region that should be an invaluable resource.’ — Thomas A. Lorman, Central Europe 10.1, May 2012, 80-82 ‘The essays in this volume demonstrate the growing range and sophistication of Anglophone scholarship on East Central Europe, particularly in their presentation of minority experiences, based on rigorous research in multiple, often lesser-known languages.’ — Nathaniel D. Wood, Austrian History Yearbook 43, 2012, 200-01
Latin eugenics was a scientific, cultural and political programme designed to biologically empowe... more Latin eugenics was a scientific, cultural and political programme designed to biologically empower modern European and American nations once commonly described as ‘Latin’. With the emergence of eugenics in the late 19th century, this common cultural and scientific identity became a fundamental component of an internationally influential Latin version of eugenics.
Latin Eugenics in Comparative Perspective offers a nuanced approach to eugenics as a scientific program as well as a cultural and political phenomenon. It examines the commonalities of eugenics in ‘Latin’ Europe and Latin America. The book also analyses the component ideas of Latin eugenics, such as Catholic eugenics, population and family policies, maternal and infant health, preventive medicine, social hygiene and public health. As a programme to achieve the social and political goals of modern welfare systems, Latin eugenics strongly influenced the complex relationship of the state to the individual.
Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources in many languages, this book offers the first history of Latin eugenics in Europe and the Americas.
The last volume of the series presents 46 texts under the heading of “anti-modernism”. Formed in ... more The last volume of the series presents 46 texts under the heading of “anti-modernism”. Formed in a dynamic relationship with modernism, from the 1880s to the 1940s, and especially during the interwar period, the anti-modernist ideological constructions of national identification had a considerable impact on the political culture of our region. These texts rejected the linear vision of modernization as well as the liberal democratic institutional frameworks and searched instead for alternative models of politics. The Second World War and the communist takeover in most of these countries seemingly erased these ideological subcultures, who were often engaged in war-time pro-Nazi collaboration. However, their intellectual heritage proved more resilient and influenced the formation of “national communist” narratives in the 1960-70s, while after 1989 many of these references became actualized in the context of the post-communist search for ideological predecessors.
„Războiul sfânt” al rasei: eugenia și protecția națiunii în Ungaria. 1900-1919, 2020
Această carte încearcă să contrabalanseze ignorarea sistematică de către istoriografia maghiară a... more Această carte încearcă să contrabalanseze ignorarea sistematică de către istoriografia maghiară a întregii dezbateri asupra diverselor teorii eugenice de îmbunătățire națională din ultimele două decenii ale Monarhiei Austro-Ungare. Era necesar un studiu detaliat despre interpretările eugenice din Ungaria începutului de secol XX, pentru a înțelege mai bine ceea ce a fost, la urma urmei, un proiect cu mult mai răspândit atât la nivel european, cât și global, și anume extinderea atribuțiilor biologice ale statului modern. Eugenia modernă și-a tras seva din asocierea teoriilor evoluționiste și a cercetării științifice privind ereditatea umană cu criticile sociale, culturale și naționaliste ale modernității. În mod corespunzător, eugeniştii au abordat nu numai subiecte științifice legate de mecanismele eredității și evoluției umane, ci și probleme specifice societății maghiare din acea perioadă. Această ideologie eugenică a urmărit astfel să ofere o viziune socială totalizantă, progresivă și rațională asupra prezentului, dar mai ales asupra viitorului societății maghiare moderne.
tudies in History and Philosophy of Biol & Biomed Sci, 2020
This article discusses the appropriation of Soviet science in Romania during the late 1940s. To a... more This article discusses the appropriation of Soviet science in Romania during the late 1940s. To achieve this, I discuss various publications on biology, anthropology, heredity and genetics. In a climate of major political change, following the end of the Second World War, all scientific fields in Romania were gradually subjected to political pressures to adapt and change according to a new ideological context. Yet the adoption of Soviet science during the late 1940s was not a straightforward process of scientific acculturation. Whilst the deference to Soviet authors remained consistent through most of Romanian scientific literature at the time, what is perhaps less visible is the attempt to refashion Romanian science itself in order to serve the country's new political imaginary and social transformation. Some Romanian biologists and physicians embraced Soviet scientific theories as a demonstration of their loyalty to the newly established regime. Others, however, were remained committed to local and Western scientific traditions they deemed essential to the survival of their discipline. A critical reassessment of the late 1940s is essential to an understanding of these dissensions as well as of the overall political and institutional constraints shaping the development of a new politics of science in communist Romania.
Science and Ethnicity II: Biopolitics and Eugenics in Romania, 1920-1944, 2019
Using material previously unseen by the general public this exhibition illustrates the extent to ... more Using material previously unseen by the general public this exhibition illustrates the extent to which national agenda re-defined scientific projects in Romania. The popularity of biopolitics and eugenics during the interwar and World War II periods is beyond question, but its wider national impact remains to be examined. Ultimately the exhibition encourages the general public and specialists alike to reflect on these ideas critically, whilst, at the same time, acknowledging the central role biopolitics and eugenics played in shaping Romanian history between 1920 and 1944.
This book engages with the relationship between religion, evolution and heredity, by bringing tog... more This book engages with the relationship between religion, evolution and heredity, by bringing together two of its aspects that are frequently discussed separately: Darwinism and eugenics. It also demonstrates that religion has played a greater role in shaping modern debates on evolution and human improvement than current scholarship has previously acknowledged. Drawing on examples provided by Britain, Italy and Portugal across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the present study provides a fresh discussion of seminal topics such as reproduction, parenthood, the control of population and ideas of human improvement based on eugenics and genetics, which intersected and, at times, dominated the much broader debate between science and religion reignited by the publication of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Ştiinţă şi etnicitate. Cercetarea antropologică în România anilor '30, 2018
Cercetările antropologice din perioada interbelică nu sunt cunoscute publicului larg. Nu se preda... more Cercetările antropologice din perioada interbelică nu sunt cunoscute publicului larg. Nu se predau la școală sau la universitate, iar semnificația lor istorică, politică și socială este puțin înțeleasă astăzi. Poate și mai grav, majoritatea istoricilor din România nu sunt interesați în istoria antropologiei; iar cei care cunosc anumite aspecte legate de cercetările antropologice din perioada interbelică le identifică adesea cu rasismul de tip nazist. Această carte și expoziţia pe care se bazează încearcă să schimbe anumite concepţii despre istoria naţională și să educe generaţiile mai tinere despre subiecte care sunt dificile, însă esenţiale, pentru a înţelege dezbaterile despre naţiune din perioada interbelică.
The idea of race may be outdated, as many commentators and scholars, working in a broad range of ... more The idea of race may be outdated, as many commentators and scholars, working in a broad range of different fields in the sciences and humanities, have argued over many years. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most persistent forms of human classification. Theories of race primitivism (the idea that there is a 'natural' racial hierarchy and ranking order of 'inferior' and 'superior' races), race biologism (the belief that people can be classified by genetic features which are shared by members of racial groups), and race essentialism (the notion that races can be defined by scientifically identifiable and verifiable cultural and physical characteristics) are deeply embedded in modern history, culture and politics.
Historicizing Race offers a new understanding of this reality by exploring the interconnectedness of scientific, cultural and political strands of racial thought in Europe and elsewhere. It re-conceptualises the idea of race by unearthing various historical traditions that continue to inform not only current debates about individual and collective identities, but also national and international politics. In a concise format, accessible to students and scholars alike, the authors draw out some of the reasons why race-centred thinking has, in recent years, re-emerged in such shocking and explicit form in current populist, xenophobic, and anti-immigration movements.
De ce este România astfel? Avatarurile excepţionalismului românesc, 2017
in Vintila Mihailescu, ed., De ce este România astfel? Avatarurile excepţionalismului românesc (I... more in Vintila Mihailescu, ed., De ce este România astfel? Avatarurile excepţionalismului românesc (Iasi: Polirom, 2017), pp. 108-125.
Latin eugenics was a scientific, cultural and political programme designed to biologically empowe... more Latin eugenics was a scientific, cultural and political programme designed to biologically empower modern European and American nations once commonly described as 'Latin', sharing genealogical, linguistic, religious, and cultural origins.
Latin Eugenics in Comparative Perspective offers a comparative, nuanced approach to eugenics as a scientific programme as well as a cultural and political phenomenon. It examines the commonalities of eugenics in 'Latin' Europe and Latin America. As a program to achieve the social and political goals of modern welfare systems, Latin eugenics strongly influenced the complex relationship of the state to the individual. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources in many languages, this book offers the first history of Latin eugenics in Europe and the Americas.
The History of East-Central European Eugenics, 1900-1945 redefines the European history of eugeni... more The History of East-Central European Eugenics, 1900-1945 redefines the European history of eugenics by exploring the ideological transmission of eugenics internationally and its application locally in East-Central Europe. Using 100 primary sources translated from the East-Central European languages into English for the first time, in addition to the key contributions of leading scholars in the field from around Europe, this book examines the main eugenic organisations, as well as individuals and policies that shaped eugenics in Austria, Poland, former Czechoslovakia, former Yugoslavia, Hungary and Romania. It also explores the ways in which ethnic minorities interacted with national and international eugenics discourses to advance their own aims and ambitions, whilst providing a comparative analysis of the emergence and development of eugenics in East-Central Europe more generally.
Twenty years after the fall of Communism, scholarship on East Central Europe has adopted mainstre... more Twenty years after the fall of Communism, scholarship on East Central Europe has adopted mainstream western methodologies, but remains preoccupied with a narrow range of themes. Nationalism, identity, fin-de-siècle art and culture, and revisionist historiography dominate the field to the detriment of other subjects. Using a variety of lenses — literary, political, linguistic, medical — the authors address a conspectus of original themes, including Jewish literary life in interwar Romania; the Galician ‘Alphabet War’; and Saxon eugenics in Transylvania. These case studies transcend their East Central European context by engaging with conceptually broad questions. This volume additionally contains a comprehensive Introduction and topical Bibliography of use to students and teachers, resulting in one of the most creative collections of studies dealing with East Central Europe to date.
This volume has its roots in an interdisciplinary seminar at the University of Oxford, bringing together emerging and established scholars, with the explicit aim of broadening the study of this region, its history and culture beyond the established paradigms. Robert Pyrah, a Junior Research Fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, is a specialist on theatre and cultural politics in the post-Habsburg context; Marius Turda is founder of the International Working Group on the History of Race and Eugenics based at Oxford Brookes University.
Re-Contextualising East Central European History was published with the support of the The Berendel Foundation, and was launched at the Foundation’s inaugural conference in Oxford on 9 September 2010.
With the contributions: James A. Kapalo — Clerical Agency and the Politics of Scriptural Translation: The ‘Canonization’ of the Gagauz Language in Southern Bessarabia Marija Petrović — Between Loyalty, Tradition, and Change: The Karlovci Gymnasium in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, 1917–1929 Eric Beckett Weaver — ‘More Hungarian Hungarians, More Human Humans’: Social and National Discourse on Hungarian Minorities in the Interwar Period Tudor Georgescu — Pursuing the Fascist Promise: The Transylvanian Saxon ‘Self-Help’ from Genesis to Empowerment, 1922–1935 R. Chris Davis — Nationalizing the Moldavian Csangos: Clericalism and Ethnic Mobilization in World War II Romania and Hungary Camelia Crăciun — ‘Writing from Within’: Jewish Romanian Writers on Jewish Life in Interwar Romania Jan Fellerer — Ukrainian Galicia at the Crossroads: The ‘Ruthenian Alphabet War’ of 1834 Nicolette Makovicky — ‘Folk-lingerie’ and Other New Traditions: Górale Cultural Entrepreneurialism on the Margins of Poland Maria Bucur — How to Tell the Story of your Grandparents? Ethical Dilemmas of Postmemory Robert J. W. Evans — Afterword
Reviews:
‘The essays in this collection are original and promise much for the future of scholarship on the region... Important matters are at stake here, including the professional historian’s relationship with the public and the memory industry (booming in East Central Europe), and the extent to which national narratives of heroism and victimhood obscure both the complexity of the past and the histories of minorities and non-national groups.’ — John Paul Newman, Modern Language Review 107.1, January 2012, 261-63 ‘All in all, then, this is an impressive volume—a shade formidable, I would say, in respect of its user unfriendliness (acres of text on the page and a rather intrusive accumulation of translations and references in the body of the text)—but impressive for all that.’ — John Took, Modern Language Review 107.1, January 2012, 290-92 ‘A snapshot of the research interests of scholars who are producing genuinely innovative research on topics which have been largely overlooked in the existing English language scholarship... also contains an extensive selected bibliography of the key recent publications on the region that should be an invaluable resource.’ — Thomas A. Lorman, Central Europe 10.1, May 2012, 80-82 ‘The essays in this volume demonstrate the growing range and sophistication of Anglophone scholarship on East Central Europe, particularly in their presentation of minority experiences, based on rigorous research in multiple, often lesser-known languages.’ — Nathaniel D. Wood, Austrian History Yearbook 43, 2012, 200-01
Latin eugenics was a scientific, cultural and political programme designed to biologically empowe... more Latin eugenics was a scientific, cultural and political programme designed to biologically empower modern European and American nations once commonly described as ‘Latin’. With the emergence of eugenics in the late 19th century, this common cultural and scientific identity became a fundamental component of an internationally influential Latin version of eugenics.
Latin Eugenics in Comparative Perspective offers a nuanced approach to eugenics as a scientific program as well as a cultural and political phenomenon. It examines the commonalities of eugenics in ‘Latin’ Europe and Latin America. The book also analyses the component ideas of Latin eugenics, such as Catholic eugenics, population and family policies, maternal and infant health, preventive medicine, social hygiene and public health. As a programme to achieve the social and political goals of modern welfare systems, Latin eugenics strongly influenced the complex relationship of the state to the individual.
Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources in many languages, this book offers the first history of Latin eugenics in Europe and the Americas.
The last volume of the series presents 46 texts under the heading of “anti-modernism”. Formed in ... more The last volume of the series presents 46 texts under the heading of “anti-modernism”. Formed in a dynamic relationship with modernism, from the 1880s to the 1940s, and especially during the interwar period, the anti-modernist ideological constructions of national identification had a considerable impact on the political culture of our region. These texts rejected the linear vision of modernization as well as the liberal democratic institutional frameworks and searched instead for alternative models of politics. The Second World War and the communist takeover in most of these countries seemingly erased these ideological subcultures, who were often engaged in war-time pro-Nazi collaboration. However, their intellectual heritage proved more resilient and influenced the formation of “national communist” narratives in the 1960-70s, while after 1989 many of these references became actualized in the context of the post-communist search for ideological predecessors.
After decades of efforts to build a more inclusive and democratic world, it appears that the "old... more After decades of efforts to build a more inclusive and democratic world, it appears that the "old ideas" of eugenics have not gone away. Some of these ideas may have been hiding in the archives, but others were not. They continue to provide terminologies and explanations for a number of issues relating to poverty, education, access to health care, and disability. During the recent Covid pandemic, ideas of economic and social productivity flowed readily from a eugenic vocabulary which, although pruned of its openly racist metaphors nevertheless carried echoes of past practices and patterns of discrimination against individuals based on age, race, and gender. Eugenics, it seemed, could be resurrected as easily by politicians as by ordinary people. The main aim of this thematic Dossier, published by Revista Brasileira de História, is to give visibility to an academic debate that is often seen through the prism of its national traditions. Our shared conviction is that it is necessary for scholars of eugenics to go beyond the confines of their own national canons and engage with collaborative work. More importantly, scholarly engagement with anti-eugenic activism must also be constantly and systematically maintained, as current work on the legacies of eugenics continues to generate new ways of responding to ongoing demands for reproductive, social, and racial justice. Legacies of eugenics are pervasive and enduring. Racial prejudice, biologi
The legacies of eugenics in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and their connections to global colo... more The legacies of eugenics in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and their connections to global colonialism remain uncharted. Therefore, it is worth pondering over this relationship, which requires a historical perspective and a repositioning of the recent postcolonial ‘turn’ in CEE to include the history of eugenics. For the most part of the 20th century, eugenics took shape within both colonial and nation-building projects. Eugenic strategies devised to preserve the colonial system outside Europe have always coexisted with programmes designed to improve the well-being of nations within Europe. This convergence between colonial, racial and national dimensions of eugenics requires a critical rethought. While this key line of inquiry has been a major focus in Western Europe and the US, it remains under-theorised in CEE. By highlighting the colonial implications of nation-building in the region, we attempt to destabilise the all-too-pervasive historiographic misconception that CEE nation...
This essay is written in response to J. Borocz’s (2021) essay on 'whiteness' in E... more This essay is written in response to J. Borocz’s (2021) essay on 'whiteness' in Europe.
Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 2008
Oxford Brookes University Taylor and Francis FTMP_A_343774.sgm 10.1080/14690760802436068 Totalita... more Oxford Brookes University Taylor and Francis FTMP_A_343774.sgm 10.1080/14690760802436068 Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 1469-0764 (print)/1743-9647 (online) Original Article 2008Taylor & Francis 94000000December 2008 MariusTurda mturda@brookes.ac. ...
This article suggests that the arguments used to justify the deportation of Roma to Transnistria ... more This article suggests that the arguments used to justify the deportation of Roma to Transnistria in 1942 were racial and eugenic. As a selfstyled scientific theory of human betterment, eugenics aimed to sanitize Romania’s population, proposing a new vision of the national community, one biologically purged of those individuals believed to be “defective”, “unfit”, and “unworthy” of reproduction. Based on new archival material we suggest that the racial definition of Romanianness that prevailed at the time aimed to remove not just Jews but alsoRoma from the dominant ethnic nation (“neamul românesc”). To define Romanianness according to blood, ethnic origin, and cultural affiliation had been an essential component of Romania’s biopolitical programme since the 1920s. During the early 1940s, it served as the political foundation upon which the transformation of Romania into an ethnically homogeneous state was carried out. At the time, the “Roma problem”, similar to the “Jewish Question”,...
Georgetown University Home. HEALTH, HYGIENE AND EUGENICS IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE TO 1945. DSpace/M... more Georgetown University Home. HEALTH, HYGIENE AND EUGENICS IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE TO 1945. DSpace/Manakin Repository. ...
This article discusses the development of Latin eugenics in Europe between 1910s and 1930s, with... more This article discusses the development of Latin eugenics in Europe between 1910s and 1930s, with a special focus on France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Romania. During this period, Latin eugenics offered a progressive programme of social and medical reform, alongside pronatalist campaigns to educate the population about the importance of large and healthy families. Latin eugenics was premised on a number of theories and ideas developed since the early 1900s, particularly in France and Italy, including "puériculture" and biotypology, and on its opposition to birth control, compulsory sterilization and Nazi racism. Considering the current revival in eugenic studies across Europe and elsewhere it is important to engage with other eugenic traditions than the ones recurrently invoked in the scholarship. The history of Latin eugenics in Europe provides a much needed revision of conventional interpretations of eugenics that focused predominantly on Anglo-American and German experi...
This comprehensive and beautifully illustrated collection of essays conveys a vivid picture of a ... more This comprehensive and beautifully illustrated collection of essays conveys a vivid picture of a fascinating and hugely significant period in history, the Fin de Siècle. Featuring contributions from over forty international scholars, this book takes a thematic approach to a period of huge upheaval across all walks of life, and is truly innovative in examining the Fin de Siècle from a global perspective. The volume includes pathbreaking essays on how the period was experienced not only in Europe and North America, but also in China, Japan, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, India, and elsewhere across the globe. Thematic topics covered include new concepts of time and space, globalization, the city, and new political movements including nationalism, the "New Liberalism", and socialism and communism. The volume also looks at the development of mass media over this period and emerging trends in culture, such as advertising and consumption, film and publishing, as well as the technological and scientific changes that shaped the world at the turn of the nineteenth century, such as the invention of the telephone, new transport systems, eugenics and physics. The Fin-de-Siècle World also considers issues such as selfhood through chapters looking at gender, sexuality, adolescence, race and class, and considers the importance of different religions, both old and new, at the turn of the century. Finally the volume examines significant and emerging trends in art, music and literature alongside movements such as realism and aestheticism. This volume conveys a vivid picture of how politics, religion, popular and artistic culture, social practices and scientific endeavours fitted together in an exciting world of change. It will be invaluable reading for all students and scholars of the Fin-de-Siècle period.
This article discusses the development of Latin eugenics in Europe between 1910s and 1930s, with ... more This article discusses the development of Latin eugenics in Europe between 1910s and 1930s, with a special focus on France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Romania. During this period, Latin eugenics offered a progressive programme of social and medical reform, alongside pronatalist campaigns to educate the population about the importance of large and healthy families. Latin eugenics was premised on a number of theories and ideas developed since the early 1900s, particularly in France and Italy, including "puericulture" and biotypology, and on its opposition to birth control, compulsory sterilization and Nazi racism. Considering the current revival in eugenic studies across Europe and elsewhere it is important to engage with other eugenic traditions than the ones recurrently invoked in the scholarship. The history of Latin eugenics in Europe provides a much needed revision of conventional interpretations of eugenics that focused predominantly on Anglo-American and German experie...
Marius Turda is a new and distinct voice in the emerging post-Cold War generation of multiperspec... more Marius Turda is a new and distinct voice in the emerging post-Cold War generation of multiperspective historianswhowere born on the other side of the Iron Curtain, lived through the historic changes at the time of their adolescence, sought education in the West and, at the threshold of the new millennium, emerged as scholars committed to remove the lasting vestiges of the former fault lines of the once fragmented continent.
The Nationalization of Scientific Knowledge in the Habsburg Empire, 1848–1918, 2012
The period before the First World War abounded in national and international debates over the mea... more The period before the First World War abounded in national and international debates over the meaning and importance of eugenics. The Hygiene Exhibition, held in Dresden in 1911, the First International Eugenics Congress, held in London in 1912, and the First National Conference on Race Betterment, held at Battle Creek, Michigan in 1914, not only were seminal moments in the history of German, British and American eugenics, but also served to cement the fragile links existing between various eugenic movements throughout Europe and the United States, and functioned as important academic forums for debates on the role of eugenics and heredity within the natural sciences as well as in wider society. 1 These scholarly gatherings became a point of intersection between local and external factors shaping the emergence of eugenics concurrently as a scientific discourse about human improvement and as an ideology concerned with the biological transformation of society. To understand the interplay between these factors, one must demonstrate how eugenic knowledge was expressed in different geographic locations and the multiple networks of cultural and scientific power existing in these locations.
Event organised by Upstream, the BAME Action Group and the Working Group on the History of Race a... more Event organised by Upstream, the BAME Action Group and the Working Group on the History of Race and Eugenics, Oxford Brookes University, 13 April 2018. Co-author Marius Turda introduced Historicizing Race (Bloomsbury 2018). In response Sasha Coutinho (1st year International Relations and Business Management) and Dr Graham van Wyk (Oxford Brookes International) reflected on the contribution the book makes in understanding the idea of “race” and its implications today. The event was chaired by Syed Imam (2nd year, History)
The exhibition on "Science and Ethnicity: Anthropological Research in Romania during the 1930s" w... more The exhibition on "Science and Ethnicity: Anthropological Research in Romania during the 1930s" will run in Bucharest between 25 March and 1 July 2018. The exhibition includes Romanian anthropological material alongside samples of the Austrian and Saxon research carried out in the Banat and Transylvania. It is for the first time that these materials are presented to the Romanian public.
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Books by Marius Turda
Historicizing Race offers a new understanding of this reality by exploring the interconnectedness of scientific, cultural and political strands of racial thought in Europe and elsewhere. It re-conceptualises the idea of race by unearthing various historical traditions that continue to inform not only current debates about individual and collective identities, but also national and international politics. In a concise format, accessible to students and scholars alike, the authors draw out some of the reasons why race-centred thinking has, in recent years, re-emerged in such shocking and explicit form in current populist, xenophobic, and anti-immigration movements.
Latin Eugenics in Comparative Perspective offers a comparative, nuanced approach to eugenics as a scientific programme as well as a cultural and political phenomenon. It examines the commonalities of eugenics in 'Latin' Europe and Latin America. As a program to achieve the social and political goals of modern welfare systems, Latin eugenics strongly influenced the complex relationship of the state to the individual. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources in many languages, this book offers the first history of Latin eugenics in Europe and the Americas.
This volume has its roots in an interdisciplinary seminar at the University of Oxford, bringing together emerging and established scholars, with the explicit aim of broadening the study of this region, its history and culture beyond the established paradigms. Robert Pyrah, a Junior Research Fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, is a specialist on theatre and cultural politics in the post-Habsburg context; Marius Turda is founder of the International Working Group on the History of Race and Eugenics based at Oxford Brookes University.
Re-Contextualising East Central European History was published with the support of the The Berendel Foundation, and was launched at the Foundation’s inaugural conference in Oxford on 9 September 2010.
With the contributions:
James A. Kapalo — Clerical Agency and the Politics of Scriptural Translation: The ‘Canonization’ of the Gagauz Language in Southern Bessarabia
Marija Petrović — Between Loyalty, Tradition, and Change: The Karlovci Gymnasium in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, 1917–1929
Eric Beckett Weaver — ‘More Hungarian Hungarians, More Human Humans’: Social and National Discourse on Hungarian Minorities in the Interwar Period
Tudor Georgescu — Pursuing the Fascist Promise: The Transylvanian Saxon ‘Self-Help’ from Genesis to Empowerment, 1922–1935
R. Chris Davis — Nationalizing the Moldavian Csangos: Clericalism and Ethnic Mobilization in World War II Romania and Hungary
Camelia Crăciun — ‘Writing from Within’: Jewish Romanian Writers on Jewish Life in Interwar Romania
Jan Fellerer — Ukrainian Galicia at the Crossroads: The ‘Ruthenian Alphabet War’ of 1834
Nicolette Makovicky — ‘Folk-lingerie’ and Other New Traditions: Górale Cultural Entrepreneurialism on the Margins of Poland
Maria Bucur — How to Tell the Story of your Grandparents? Ethical Dilemmas of Postmemory
Robert J. W. Evans — Afterword
Reviews:
‘The essays in this collection are original and promise much for the future of scholarship on the region... Important matters are at stake here, including the professional historian’s relationship with the public and the memory industry (booming in East Central Europe), and the extent to which national narratives of heroism and victimhood obscure both the complexity of the past and the histories of minorities and non-national groups.’ — John Paul Newman, Modern Language Review 107.1, January 2012, 261-63
‘All in all, then, this is an impressive volume—a shade formidable, I would say, in respect of its user unfriendliness (acres of text on the page and a rather intrusive accumulation of translations and references in the body of the text)—but impressive for all that.’ — John Took, Modern Language Review 107.1, January 2012, 290-92
‘A snapshot of the research interests of scholars who are producing genuinely innovative research on topics which have been largely overlooked in the existing English language scholarship... also contains an extensive selected bibliography of the key recent publications on the region that should be an invaluable resource.’ — Thomas A. Lorman, Central Europe 10.1, May 2012, 80-82
‘The essays in this volume demonstrate the growing range and sophistication of Anglophone scholarship on East Central Europe, particularly in their presentation of minority experiences, based on rigorous research in multiple, often lesser-known languages.’ — Nathaniel D. Wood, Austrian History Yearbook 43, 2012, 200-01
Latin Eugenics in Comparative Perspective offers a nuanced approach to eugenics as a scientific program as well as a cultural and political phenomenon. It examines the commonalities of eugenics in ‘Latin’ Europe and Latin America. The book also analyses the component ideas of Latin eugenics, such as Catholic eugenics, population and family policies, maternal and infant health, preventive medicine, social hygiene and public health. As a programme to achieve the social and political goals of modern welfare systems, Latin eugenics strongly influenced the complex relationship of the state to the individual.
Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources in many languages, this book offers the first history of Latin eugenics in Europe and the Americas.
Idealul eugenic • Internationalizarea eugenismului • Razboiul: singurul igienist al lumii • Cruciada eugenismului: cantitate sau calitate? • Biologia politica • Tehnologiile eugenice ale perfectionarii nationale • Stigmatul eugenic • Fundatii ceresti, planificare rationala • Biopolitica si rasism • Controlarea minoritatilor etnice • Statul biopolitic
Historicizing Race offers a new understanding of this reality by exploring the interconnectedness of scientific, cultural and political strands of racial thought in Europe and elsewhere. It re-conceptualises the idea of race by unearthing various historical traditions that continue to inform not only current debates about individual and collective identities, but also national and international politics. In a concise format, accessible to students and scholars alike, the authors draw out some of the reasons why race-centred thinking has, in recent years, re-emerged in such shocking and explicit form in current populist, xenophobic, and anti-immigration movements.
Latin Eugenics in Comparative Perspective offers a comparative, nuanced approach to eugenics as a scientific programme as well as a cultural and political phenomenon. It examines the commonalities of eugenics in 'Latin' Europe and Latin America. As a program to achieve the social and political goals of modern welfare systems, Latin eugenics strongly influenced the complex relationship of the state to the individual. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources in many languages, this book offers the first history of Latin eugenics in Europe and the Americas.
This volume has its roots in an interdisciplinary seminar at the University of Oxford, bringing together emerging and established scholars, with the explicit aim of broadening the study of this region, its history and culture beyond the established paradigms. Robert Pyrah, a Junior Research Fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, is a specialist on theatre and cultural politics in the post-Habsburg context; Marius Turda is founder of the International Working Group on the History of Race and Eugenics based at Oxford Brookes University.
Re-Contextualising East Central European History was published with the support of the The Berendel Foundation, and was launched at the Foundation’s inaugural conference in Oxford on 9 September 2010.
With the contributions:
James A. Kapalo — Clerical Agency and the Politics of Scriptural Translation: The ‘Canonization’ of the Gagauz Language in Southern Bessarabia
Marija Petrović — Between Loyalty, Tradition, and Change: The Karlovci Gymnasium in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, 1917–1929
Eric Beckett Weaver — ‘More Hungarian Hungarians, More Human Humans’: Social and National Discourse on Hungarian Minorities in the Interwar Period
Tudor Georgescu — Pursuing the Fascist Promise: The Transylvanian Saxon ‘Self-Help’ from Genesis to Empowerment, 1922–1935
R. Chris Davis — Nationalizing the Moldavian Csangos: Clericalism and Ethnic Mobilization in World War II Romania and Hungary
Camelia Crăciun — ‘Writing from Within’: Jewish Romanian Writers on Jewish Life in Interwar Romania
Jan Fellerer — Ukrainian Galicia at the Crossroads: The ‘Ruthenian Alphabet War’ of 1834
Nicolette Makovicky — ‘Folk-lingerie’ and Other New Traditions: Górale Cultural Entrepreneurialism on the Margins of Poland
Maria Bucur — How to Tell the Story of your Grandparents? Ethical Dilemmas of Postmemory
Robert J. W. Evans — Afterword
Reviews:
‘The essays in this collection are original and promise much for the future of scholarship on the region... Important matters are at stake here, including the professional historian’s relationship with the public and the memory industry (booming in East Central Europe), and the extent to which national narratives of heroism and victimhood obscure both the complexity of the past and the histories of minorities and non-national groups.’ — John Paul Newman, Modern Language Review 107.1, January 2012, 261-63
‘All in all, then, this is an impressive volume—a shade formidable, I would say, in respect of its user unfriendliness (acres of text on the page and a rather intrusive accumulation of translations and references in the body of the text)—but impressive for all that.’ — John Took, Modern Language Review 107.1, January 2012, 290-92
‘A snapshot of the research interests of scholars who are producing genuinely innovative research on topics which have been largely overlooked in the existing English language scholarship... also contains an extensive selected bibliography of the key recent publications on the region that should be an invaluable resource.’ — Thomas A. Lorman, Central Europe 10.1, May 2012, 80-82
‘The essays in this volume demonstrate the growing range and sophistication of Anglophone scholarship on East Central Europe, particularly in their presentation of minority experiences, based on rigorous research in multiple, often lesser-known languages.’ — Nathaniel D. Wood, Austrian History Yearbook 43, 2012, 200-01
Latin Eugenics in Comparative Perspective offers a nuanced approach to eugenics as a scientific program as well as a cultural and political phenomenon. It examines the commonalities of eugenics in ‘Latin’ Europe and Latin America. The book also analyses the component ideas of Latin eugenics, such as Catholic eugenics, population and family policies, maternal and infant health, preventive medicine, social hygiene and public health. As a programme to achieve the social and political goals of modern welfare systems, Latin eugenics strongly influenced the complex relationship of the state to the individual.
Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources in many languages, this book offers the first history of Latin eugenics in Europe and the Americas.
Idealul eugenic • Internationalizarea eugenismului • Razboiul: singurul igienist al lumii • Cruciada eugenismului: cantitate sau calitate? • Biologia politica • Tehnologiile eugenice ale perfectionarii nationale • Stigmatul eugenic • Fundatii ceresti, planificare rationala • Biopolitica si rasism • Controlarea minoritatilor etnice • Statul biopolitic
Co-author Marius Turda introduced Historicizing Race (Bloomsbury 2018). In response Sasha Coutinho (1st year International Relations and Business Management) and Dr Graham van Wyk (Oxford Brookes International) reflected on the contribution the book makes in understanding the idea of “race” and its implications today. The event was chaired by Syed Imam (2nd year, History)