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Disadvantage: The Genetic Case 59however, takes a rather harsh view of Galton, who reiterated his ‘racistviews’ with disturbing frequency. As against the idea that these viewswere essentially popular ones at the time is the fact that eugenics wasnot at all a popularly-received notion when it first emerged. Rather, itsteadily gained in acceptance as the fin-de-siècle approached, and theeconomic conditions, the unprecedented patterns of immigration andsincere concerns for mass social welfare all combined to bring it to itszenith during the first third of the 20th century. Making use of primarysource material, Lowe’s (1979: 297) terse but careful analysis reveals thetwin thrusts of the eugenics movement at this time: the assessment ofintelligence and ‘backwardness’ and the ‘obsessive concern with racialdegeneration’ (see also Lowe, 1980). The appeal of the ‘self-direction ofhuman evolution’ (the motto of a eugenics congress held in New York in1921) seemed undeniable. It was a very widespread appeal: Adams(1990), McLaren (1990) and Dowbiggin (1997) discuss the eugenicsmovement in Germany, Brazil, France, Russia, Canada and elsewhere.Societies were established around the world, and the internationalconferences devoted to the topic were supported and attended bysome of the most eminent scientific and political figures of the time.The New York meetings had been preceded by an initial gathering inLondon in 1912, and a third large assembly took place also at theNatural History Museum in New York in 1932. At this last one, the‘problem’ of African Americans was at the top of the agenda.Eugenics and selection in AmericaStrong connections were naturally forged between the popular andwidespread early 20th-century view that some groups were inherentlyless capable than others, and the burgeoning intelligence-testing movementpioneered by Alfred Binet, Lewis Terman and others. Evaluationsof ability in ways now seen as clearly ethnocentric and biased in favorof the social ‘mainstream’ came to have unfortunate implications ineugenic practice and theory, in the passage of sterilization laws, andin immigration control the last two being particularly important inAmerica. It surely comes as no surprise to learn that scientific investigationsof the period discovered mental deficiency to be especiallyprevalent among the black population. (As White [2006b] remarks, thetesting movement in Britain focused upon class; in America, on race.)Relatedly, many Italian, Polish and Jewish immigrants were classified asfeeble-minded compared with their British and northern Europeancounterparts. Thus, the eugenicist Henry Goddard administered versions