ABSTRACT
Galton's eugenic ideas took popular hold after the turn of the twentieth century, developing a large following in the United States, Britain, Germany, and many other countries. The backbone of the movement was formed of people drawn from the white middle and upper middle classes, especially professional groups. Its supporters included prominent laymen and scientists, particularly geneticists, for whom the science of human biological improvement offered an avenue to public standing and usefulness. Eugenicists declared that they were concerned with preventing social degeneration, which they found glaring signs of in the social and behavioral discordances of urban industrial society - for example, crime, slums, and rampant disease - and the causes of which many attributed primarily to biology.
