Professor Leon Publishes Book on Catholic Struggle with Eugenics

Professor Leon Publishes Book on Catholic Struggle with Eugenics

Sharon Leon, research associate professor of history, has published An Image of God: The Catholic Struggle with Eugenics 

Her publisher, the University of Chicago Press, explains, "During the first half of the twentieth century, supporters of the eugenics movement offered an image of a racially transformed America by curtailing the reproduction of 'unfit' members of society. Through institutionalization, compulsory sterilization, the restriction of immigration and marriages, and other methods, eugenicists promised to improve the population—a policy agenda that was embraced by many leading intellectuals and public figures. But Catholic activists and thinkers across the United States opposed many of these measures, asserting that 'every man, even a lunatic, is an image of God, not a mere animal.'"