The Orphans of Davenport: Eugenics, the Great Depression, and the War Over Children's Intelligence

by Marilyn Brookwood

Book Overview

"Doomed from birth" was how psychologist Harold Skeels described two toddler girls at the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home in Davenport, Iowa, in 1934. Their IQ scores, added together, totaled just 81. Following prevailing eugenic beliefs of the times, Skeels and his colleague Marie Skodak assumed that the girls had inherited their parents' low intelligence and were therefore unfit for adoption. The girls were sent to an institution for the "feebleminded"...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1631494686
• ISBN13: 9781631494680
• Release Date: July 2021
• Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.0"