Eugenics: the story of a really bad idea

Did you know that after WWI New Zealand established an official eugenics board? We tend to think of eugenics as being something the Nazis invented but really it was embraced all around the world in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In this episode of Black Sheep historian and disability researcher Hilary Stace traces the history of New Zealand's eugenicists.

CORRECTION: The elderly Chinese man murdered by Lionel Terry was named Joe Kum Yung. He was killed in Haining Street, Wellington, on 24 September 1905, not in Auckland in 1907 as stated in this podcast.

Did you know that after the First World War New Zealand established an official eugenics board? We tend to think of eugenics as being something the Nazis invented but really it was embraced all around the world in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

It was particularly popular among the intellectual classes. Some of our most progressive institutions, the National Council of Women, Federated Farmers and the Plunket Society all either promoted some form of eugenics or had members who did.

In this episode of Black Sheep historian and disability researcher Hilary Stace traces the history of New Zealand's eugenicists.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details