comments
Elizabeth Catte isn t interested in excuses. She s a historian; she understands the concept of different eras just fine. It s in the job description. But the author of 2018 s What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia refuses to take a sympathetic tone about the atrocities of the past in her stunning new book, Pure America: Eugenics and the Making of Modern Virginia. Here is something about this book that might get me into trouble, she writes early on. I think most eugenicists were bad people. There will be no man of his time hedging here. What she does, instead, is eloquently present a chilling chronicle of the system of forced institutionalization, forced sterilization and forced labor emanating from Virginia s Western State Hospital throughout the 20th century. (Virginia, by the way, was hardly unique 32 US states had eugenics programs.) Catte reveals, via historical records and intimate individual stories, a displacement of entire families that was as
We asked writers from left, right and center to offer creative ideas for the next president not necessarily the obvious policy measures at the forefront of political discussion. Plus: 7 artists illustrate their own proposals.