Pure America, Elizabeth Catte
Pure America, Elizabeth Catte
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Pure America
Eugenics and the Making of Modern Virginia

Author: Elizabeth Catte

Narrator: Jo Anna Perrin

Unabridged: 6 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/20/2021


Synopsis

Between 1927 and 1979, more than 8,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in five hospitals across the state of Virginia. From this plain and terrible fact springs Elizabeth Catte's Pure America, a sweeping, unsparing history of eugenics in Virginia, and by extension the United States. Virginia's twentieth-century eugenics program was not the misguided initiative of well-meaning men of the day, writes Catte, with clarity and ferocity. It was a manifestation of white supremacy. It was a form of employment insurance. It was a means of controlling "troublesome" women and a philosophy that helped remove poor people from valuable land. It was cruel and it was wrong, and yet today sites where it was practiced like Western State Hospital, in Staunton, Virginia, are rehabilitated as luxury housing, their histories hushed up in the service of capital. As was amply evidenced by her acclaimed 2018 book What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, Catte has no room for excuses; no patience for equivocation. What does it mean for modern America, she asks here, that such buildings are given the second chance that 8,000 citizens never got? And what possible interventions can be made now, repair their damage?

About Elizabeth Catte

Elizabeth Catte is a writer and historian from East Tennessee. She holds a PhD in public history from Middle Tennessee State University and is the co-owner of Passel, a historical consulting and development company.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Alex.andthebooks on October 06, 2024

Warto byłoby na pewno wspomnieć, że sam reportaż nie rozprawia się z kwestią eugeniki w całych Stanach Zjednoczonych, a jedynie w jednym konkretnym mieście i stanie. Zdecydowanie czuje się złość i rozgoryczenie autorki — zszokowały mnie niektóre mocne słowa, ale po skończeniu lektury i zapoznaniu si......more

Goodreads review by Mannie on April 11, 2021

I picked up ‘Pure America’ to see if it might be a good book to use for an Honors class on eugenics and genetic engineering I teach with a colleague at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The title and subtitle suggested this might be an important read for our students. Elizabeth Catte has construc......more

Goodreads review by Aleksandra on January 28, 2025

Nie spodziewałam się po reportażu aż takiego ładunku emocji autorki. Elizabeth Catte każdą stronę pisała na solidnym wnerwie, ale też z każdą stroną czytelnik lepiej to wkurzenie rozumie. "Czysta Ameryka. Przemilczana historia eugeniki" skupia się przede wszystkim na stanie Wirginia i Western State H......more

Goodreads review by zbookami on January 02, 2025

Rozczarowanie. 180 stron to za mało na temat eugeniki. Dodatkowo poruszony został tylko stan Wirginia (rozumiem, że ze względu na pochodzenie autorki), ale wolałabym dostać coś więcej.......more

Goodreads review by josie on February 08, 2022

as much about public memory + violence being built into today’s physical landscapes as it is about eugenics — not the book for you if you want a focused text, but i loved the connections catte made btwn class, race, and disability......more