Title
“Citizens Useful to Their Country and to Humanity”: The Convergence of Eugenics and Pro-Natalism in Interwar French Politics, 1918–1940
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
Volume
29
Journal
Canadian Bulletin of Medical History
First Page
373
Last Page
397
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.3138/cbmh.29.2.373
Abstract
Interwar France witnessed a convergence of two ostensibly diametrically opposed phenomena: eugenics and pro-natalism. In the 1930s in particular, pro-natalists, desiring to raise the French birthrate, and eugenicists, pursuing racial hygiene, came together both literally and discursively, allowing them to exercise a high degree of influence on politics and policy. In this manner, although France did not conduct a campaign of sterilization as did many other countries, eugenics influenced the formation of the French welfare state nonetheless, suggesting that historians should reassess their interpretation of its origins.
