The Purifying Knife: The Troubling History of Eugenics in Texas

by Michael Phillips and Elizabeth Friauf

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, 32 states passed laws allowing involuntary sterilization on those deemed biologically "unfit" convicted criminals, the disabled, the poor, and people of color. Texas, despite a history of violent racism, was not one of them. In The Purifying Knife, Michael Phillips and Betsy Friauf explore this curious instance of the Lone Star State's exceptionalism. The first history of the eugenics...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806195363
• ISBN13: 9780806195360
• Release Date: June 2025
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Length: 296 Pages