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Apr 27, 2016 Web Exclusive By Frank Valish

In 1924, Carrie Buck, a poor foster child from Charlottesville, VA, was institutionalized under the most dubious of circumstances. Becoming pregnant after being raped by her foster mother’s nephew, Buck was then labeled “feebleminded,” and so began the State’s quest to have her sterilized. Ultimately, and tragically, the 1927 U.S. Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell decided her fate.

Imbeciles is the fascinating tale of Buck, her mother, her young daughter, and the whirlwind of idiocy surrounding them that was the eugenics movement in 1920s America. Adam Cohen meticulously constructs the scene into which Buck was so unfortunately thrust. Prominent doctors, lawyers, and politicians in Virginia at the time were espousing the eugenic philosophy, whereby the American populace would be rendered more intelligent, healthier, and stronger if the weaker in their midst wouldn’t propagate. Enter into this maelstrom of bigotry a burgeoning intelligence testing field that served to justify seemingly unjustifiable assertions of intellect, or lack thereof, and thus provide the basis of proof for such measures as sterilization.

Cohen lays out his narrative by chapters that each take on central figures in the story-Buck; Dr. Priddy, the superintendent of the Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded to which Buck was submitted; Dr. Harry Laughlin, a leading eugenicist and director of the Eugenics Record Office on Long Island; Aubrey Strode, the lawyer who wrote Virginia’s sterilization law; and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Supreme Court Justice and supreme bigot who helped the case against Buck.

Imbeciles is a heartbreaking tale of how people’s worst impulses can lead to ultimate wrongdoing. An utter travesty of U.S. history, the eugenics movement became the template for Hitler’s philosophy in Germany; the connections between Hitler’s ideology and America’s eugenics movement are laid out here in startling detail. And even once the believe in eugenics had faded, sterilizations continued in this country for many years following Buck v. Bell, a precedent set.

Perhaps the ultimate irony for Buck is that she was never feebleminded at all, from all that records seem to indicate. She was the victim of rape and punished double. Imbeciles serves to lay her story bare for all to see and contemplate what evil injustices were meted out upon those who were least able or likely to fight for themselves and their rights. It’s a disgusting piece of American history, and a remarkable book. (www.penguin.com)

Author rating: 8/10