Talk:Lothrop Stoddard

American critics of Judaism category

This article puts Stoddard in the Anti-Jewish category in its category listings. I have read Stoddard was Anti-Jewish, but Judaism, Jewry and Jews were not a major focus of his writings, so I'm not sure that category is appropriate. He never wrote anything specifically about Judaism as far as I am aware, in contrast to Henry Ford, who wrote The International Jew. In fact Stoddard seems to have been more Anti-African and Anti-Islamic than Anti-Jewish from what I know about him. RandomScholar30 (talk) 06:56, 28 May 2016 (UTC)

From looking at this article by Stoddard, , it seems he probably was Anti-Jewish. But even that article was written in a more neutral tone than, say, Henry Ford's The International Jew was, and like I said, Judaism was not a major focus of Stoddard's work. Helena Blavatsky, Carl Jung, Friedrich Nietzsche and Henry Ford are much better known for their Anti-Jewish views than Stoddard is, but they are not included in any Anti-Judaism categories, so I'm still not sure Stoddard belongs in the "Anti-Judaism in America" category either, because his Anti-Jewish views are not what he is known for, he is much better known for his anti-immigrant, anti-African and Anti-Muslim views. RandomScholar30 (talk) 14:37, 29 May 2016 (UTC)

As someone who just completed reading The New World of Islam, I find absolutely nothing within it that would indicate Stoddard was "anti-Muslim" or "anti-Islamic"; if anything he seems awed at the religion's power to spur on the Arabs, who in his view were hitherto unremarkable, into bursting from Arabia and conquering their way into the history books and creating a new civilization. 206.188.40.128 (talk) 00:00, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

Birth control movement/views on eugenics

Is there anything in particular I can change Beyond My Ken? it could it reduced to say

Stoddard helped found the American Birth Control League with Margaret Sanger. He held leadership positions in the organisation. His main concern regarding birth control was based on race (or racism), he wrote many articles for Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Review, in one he claimed that “It is the lower elements of the population, the negroid aboriginal tribes and the Pariahs or Outcasts, who are gaining the fastest.”

Original ===Birth control movement===

Stoddard helped found the American Birth Control League with Margaret Sanger and other prominent eugenicists on its board. He held the position on the Board of Directors of the American Birth Control League (later Planned Parenthood), which he held from March 1922 to December 1925, followed by membership in its National Council from January 1926 to March 1929. His main concern regarding birth control was racist, he wrote many articles for Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Review, in one he claimed that “It is the lower elements of the population, the negroid aboriginal tribes and the Pariahs or Outcasts, who are gaining the fastest.”

References

Skinnytony1 (talk) 08:14, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

What is the value in your reduction? What is its purpose? Beyond My Ken (talk) 11:41, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

Stoddard's role in the eugenics movement is worthy of some coverage, and this source notes that Stoddard was one of several eugenicists on the board of the ABCL when it was founded. That said, I don't see neutral reliable sources that mention him as a particularly important figure in the organizations that would later become Planned Parenthood - that's really more of an anti-abortion talking point than an encyclopedic way to frame Stoddard's bio. Nblund ^talk 01:11, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

I was intending to remove the planned parenthood part in my original edit because like you say its an "anti-abortion talking point" Skinnytony1 (talk) 11:39, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

But the section you're proposing still relies heavily on citations to anti-abortion websites and authors. There's a paragraph in the article that mentions his role in the eugenics movement, so it might be worth briefly mentioning there that he was on the board of the ABCL, but the level of emphasis implied by a separate subsection seems undue.Nblund ^talk 16:20, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

Hey, Nblund yes that's a trash website, I've found a link to the original source of the quote which was a contribution to the "First American Birth Control Conference", “It is the lower elements of the population, the negroid aboriginal tribes and the Pariahs or Outcasts, who are gaining the fastest” acadmeic collaborative library initiative Is it possible to cite that or just cite “Lothrop Stoddard.  “Population Problems in Asia.”  Birth Control Review, December 1921, page 11.” ? Or chose a different quote. The article is amazingly racist and there's many to chose from, if any. Then everything else can be attributed to the journal article this source .

And re purpose Beyond My Ken. My intention is accuracy. Jane Carey (2012) The Racial Imperatives of Sex: birth control and eugenics in Britain, the United States and Australia in the interwar years, Women's History Review, 21:5, 733-752:

In the United Sates, dire eugenic warnings about ‘miscegenation’ and ‘race suicide’ reached their apogee in Madison Grant's, The Passing of the Great Race; or The Racial Basis of European History, which appeared in 1916, and Lothrop Stoddard's 1921 publication The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy.

It is against this background of strong racial prescriptions that eugenics must be understood. Eugenics was certainly equally concerned with ‘internal’ threats of racial degeneration posed by the unchecked breeding of the ‘unfit’. ‘Mental deficiency’ and the working classes became key areas of concern as the major sources of racial decay. But, as discussed further below, even where eugenicists apparently spoke in purely classist terms, they did so in a context in which racial hierarchy and difference were assumed. Race and class were inseparable in eugenic rhetoric, as they were in eugenic birth control campaigns.

Sanger also promoted this vision through the organisations she formed, beginning with The Birth Control Review, which she founded and edited from 1917. The overwhelming majority of this journal's contents promoted eugenic ideals, as the almost annual special issue on the topic of ‘sterilization’ reflected. Although only two issues in 1921 carried the motto ‘To Breed a Race of Thoroughbreds’ on its front cover, many proclaimed ‘Fewer but Better Babies’ or ‘Voluntary Motherhood’, which, as we have seen, had definite eugenic significance. The journal did not limit itself to artificial contraception as we understand it. It was quite literally concerned with all means of controlling births and broader population questions. It discussed issues ranging from immigration to sterilisation, mental deficiency to genius, slums and poverty to maternal and infant health. Articles in 1919 included ‘Birth Control, Morality and Eugenics’, by Havelock Ellis, in 1920 ‘Birth Control or Racial Degeneration, Which?’, by Anna Martin and ‘The World's Racial Problem’, a glowing review of Lothrop Stoddard's The Rising Tide of Color, again by Havelock Ellis. Stoddard himself wrote on ‘Population Problems in Asia’ in 1922, while in 1920–21 Sanger produced a series of six articles on ‘Racial Quotas in Immigration’. Less than 5% of articles in the Review in the 1920s contained any discussion of women's right to self-determination.43

In 1921 Sanger founded the American Birth Control League, with Lothrop Stoddard and other prominent eugenicists on its board. Like Stopes's Society for Constructive Birth Control, the League's aims reflected Sanger's desire to reformulate eugenics through the lens of birth control.

Bold added. I've got no barrow to push here I'm not from US. The reason I find this interesting because of the parallels with the population debate in the 60's and beyond, which I wrote about here. I think it should be expanded to show some context beyond, "Stoddard helped found the American Birth Control League." Thanks both of you for pushing me to read the source material. Skinnytony1 (talk) 12:12, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

This article is about the life of Lothrop Stoddard, not Margaret Sanger or the ABCL. I think you could justify a single sentence, in the paragraph on his other eugenics views, that says he was on the American Birth Control League, but that's about it. I haven't seen anything to indicate that it is an important aspect of his own bio. Nblund ^talk 15:31, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

Quotes from “into the darkness”

As Stoddard’s book “Into the Darkness” tells a very different story from what was alleged in this article, I have out of fairness added exact quotes so that they can’t be taken out of context, and readers can decide for themselves. They do not reflect favorably on the nazis and I hope they remain19:45, 1 May 2021 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.230.147.199 (talk)

Possible incorrect attribution - "untermensch"

The article currently reads "His book The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man (1922) introduced the term Untermensch (the German translation of "Under-man") into Nazi conceptions of race," which seems to be at least partially incorrect and misleading. Friedrich Nietzsche originally coined the term "untermensch" in the previous century, and it is much more likely that the Nazis acquired the term from their reading of Nietzsche. Although Stoddard's book probably played a role in popularizing the use of the term in Nazi ideology, completely failing to mention Nietzsche seems questionable. 2601:CF:80:5220:C8B7:470B:4579:FDA9 (talk) 01:57, 28 January 2025 (UTC)