Читать книгу Sterilization of Carrie Buck - David Smith - Страница 8

Foreword

by

J. David Smith

In March of 1988, before Dr. Ray Nelson joined me as co-author, I received a letter from Stephen Jay Gould. His letter came as a reply to my having written to him with the news that The Sterilization of Carrie Buck would be published. I had shared with him earlier the first draft of the manuscript, so it was with great excitement and gratitude that I read the words of his letter.

Professor Gould’s books, particularly The Mismeasure of Man, have been valuable sources of learning and as vessels of encouragement. Stephen Gould shares his scientific brilliance, his expressive talent and his sensitivity to the human condition in ways that caution and inspire those who read his writings or listen to his lectures. He has not confined himself to university halls and academic publications. He has shared his expertise and insight with broader constituencies in a nation and world still struggling with old problems. Recently, for example, he served as an expert witness on evolution in a judicial revisit of the evolution/creationism curriculum issue by the Supreme Court. He has also personally taken his message of equality as a contingent fact of human history to southern Africa.

I was honored and elated to receive the words that follow from Stephen Jay Gould as an endorsement for the story of Carrie Buck. Both Dr. Nelson and I cannot imagine a foreword for this book that would be more meaningful. We are pleased to be able to share it with you, the reader, as you begin this account of the intersecting of an individual human life with a social movement.

March 29, 1988

Dr. J. David Smith

Professor of Education and Human Development

Lynchburg College

Lynchburg, Virginia 24501

Dear Dave,

The story of Carrie Buck is the focal episode in a major story of 20th century social history. (I would compare it to the Scopes trial, which of course occurred at about the same time, as the key item in the history of a social and legislative movement not resolved until our Supreme Court victory of last year.) Eugenical sterilization surely had a greater impact on people’s lives than creationism. Just think of the 40,000 sterilized in this country, not to mention the half million based on Germany’s version of the law that Carrie Buck challenged and lost in the Supreme Court. Yet while books, not to mention television dramas, abound about the Scope’s trial, no one has yet properly presented Carrie’s story to a mass audience. I congratulate you on your effort.

Sincerely,

Stephen Jay Gould

Harvard University