Race, blood, and nation: the manifestations of eugenics in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

In this article, I re-centre accounts of eugenics that have been largely unmarked within the standard narratives of nation formation across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Despite adoption and adaptation of eugenic practices, the region’s accounts of eugenics seem unassignable to the global circulation of eugenics developed in Western Europe and the United States. The article highlights the ways in which eugenics has been purposefully integrated into the understandings of race and nation formation across CEE. In doing so, the article signals an argument that the processes and practices of eugenics were not only integral to the West, but also evident in the arrangements of nation formation as a consequence of racial formation in Central and Eastern Europe.