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Book Talk: Long Island & the Legacy of Eugenics w/author

Author Mark Torres explores the local characters, influences, landmarks and ghastly consequences that emanated from this small Long Island facility for decades and spread throughout the world

On Long Island and throughout the nation, eugenicists were granted unfettered access to conduct experiments on prisoners, psychiatric patients, Coney Island circus performers, Native American reservations and more, all in an effort to legitimize a false science. The origins of the eugenics movement can be found within the Eugenics Record Office, an otherwise nondescript two-and-a-half-story administrative building at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, under the direction of Charles Benedict Davenport from 1910-1939. The work conducted there directly led to the forced sterilization of thousands of American citizens, the passage of anti-immigration laws, and sparked a deadly global movement that directly inspired the murderous Nazi regime to commit heinous acts under the banner of eugenics. Author Mark Torres explores the local characters, influences, landmarks and ghastly consequences that emanated from this small Long Island facility for decades and spread throughout the world.

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