Producer Laurie Kahn-Leavitt talks about the making of the film A Midwife's Tale, and Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich discusses the importance of Martha Ballard's diary and what it reveals about 17th century America and women's roles at that time.
With every new advance in prenatal genetic screening, the ability to prevent suffering has also sparked difficult questions. These fears arise, in part, because just 100 years ago, that’s exactly what the eugenics movement tried to do.
The Eugenics Crusade tells the story of the unlikely –– and largely unknown –– campaign to breed a “better” American race, tracing the rise of the movement that turned the fledgling science of heredity into a powerful instrument of social control.
