Part 7/17:
Eugenics' roots in the American Progressive Era reflected a worldview that prioritized efficiency, control, and social engineering. Thomas C. Leonard's Illiberal Reformers demonstrates that eugenic ideas were embedded in mainstream academic and political thought—promoting a technocratic view where a state run by "scientific experts" could and should manipulate society to "progress" according to their idealized standards. The movement promoted notions of "human engineering," often justifying the dehumanization and extermination of those deemed unfit.