Ed Larson review, "A Race to Nowhere," published in The American Interest

July 6, 2017 | By Kylie Larkin -- Professor Edward J. Larson's review of two recent books will be published in the next issue of The American Interest. The review, titled "A Race to Nowhere: Were Jim Crow and American eugenics laws the models for Nazi race law?" considers the history of race-based restrictions and the eugenics movement discussed in "Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law," by James Q. Whitman, and "Imbeciles: the Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck," by Adam Cohen.

Excerpt from "A Race to Nowhere":

If slavery was America's original sin, as so many commentators have said, then race-based restrictions and eugenic sterilization were the twisted progeny of the nation's exile from Eden. Two recent books by prominent legal scholars explore these dark corners of American history with new insight. No one comes off looking good in either book, but that is typically the case with the consequences of an original sin. If racism is the fundamental flaw in the American character, it will inevitably come out even in our heroes.