'This ambitious and thoroughly researched book seeks to achieve nothing less than a major rethink of the intellectual background to Nazism.' Dan Stone, German Studies Review
Introduction; 1. Mendel's laws and their application to humans, 1865–1913; 2. Mendelism maturing: from experimental to interpretative framework, 1913–1933; 3. Mendelism, purity and national renewal; 4. Annihilating defective genes: Mendelian consciousness and the sterilization campaign; 5. Mendelizing racial antisemitism; Epilogue: social Mendelism beyond the Nazis.