“Blood Will Tell”. The Eugenics Movement in Canada Prior to World War II
“Blood Will Tell”. The Eugenics Movement in Canada Prior to World War II

Summary/Abstract: These words on the traditional idea of blood lines through the veins of the family, and hence race, were written by the “father” of eugenics, Francis Galton. They are powerful reminder that a racial discourse has a long history. However, until the eugenics movement got under way, “race” was always in some sense a popular science. In the nineteenth century there were important attempts to identify nationality with race.2 Racialism thus provided a powerful framework for interpreting and explaining other cultures, and for articulating the racial supremacy of one race. Moreover, racial heredity implied that there must be a unity of descent. Once upon a time there must have existed a number of ancestors of definite bodily form, from whom the present population has descended. This is clearest in the case of a homogenous population.

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