Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population PDF
Preview Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population
Fatal Misconception Fatal Misconception The Struggle to Control World Population MATTHEW CONNELLY TheBelknapPressofHarvardUniversityPress Cambridge,Massachusetts / London,England 2008 Copyright©2008bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege Allrightsreserved PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Connelly,MatthewJames. Fatalmisconception : thestruggletocontrolworldpopulation / MatthewConnelly. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-674-02423-6(hardcover :alk.paper) 1.Populationpolicy—History. 2.Population—Economicaspects. 3.Overpopulation. 4.Birthcontrol—History. 5.Internationalrelations. I.Title. HB883.5.C65 2008 363.9—dc22 2007040553 To my parents, for having so many children CONTENTS Preface ix Abbreviations xiii Introduction:HowBiologyBecameHistory 1 1. PopulationsoutofControl 18 2. ToInherittheEarth 46 3. PopulationsatWar 77 4. BirthoftheThirdWorld 115 5. ThePopulationEstablishment 155 6. ControllingNations 195 7. BeyondFamilyPlanning 237 8. ASystemwithoutaBrain 276 9. ReproducingRights,ReproducingHealth 327 Conclusion:TheThreatoftheFuture 370 Notes 387 ArchivesandInterviews 487 Acknowledgments 491 Index 493 PREFACE This has been a hard book to write, but the dedication really did write it- self.WhenIfirstsetdowntotellthestoryofthepopulationcontrolmove- ment, I realized that it was already a tribute to my parents. After all, I am theyoungestofeightchildren.Justmentioningthisfactstrikesmostpeople with amazement. When they hear that my parents are Catholic, they seize onitasasimpleexplanation.Infact,by1967,theyearIwasconceivedand born, American Catholics were practicing contraception at virtually the same rate as everyone else. My grandmother, who was particularly devout, greeted news of each new child with dismay. When they grew up to make her proud, her son would ask which of her grandchildren she wished had never been born—the only sharp words anyone can remember passing be- tweenthem. Thelate1960sandearly1970swereatoughtimetoraisealargefamily, whichmaybewhymineconsideredtoughnessanessentialtrait.Itwasnot just the uncertainties of the era, though I well remember waiting in long lines at gas stations as the tenth passenger in a nine-passenger station wagon. We forget that one of the few certainties of that troubled time, en- dorsedinvirtuallyidenticalplanksintheDemocraticandRepublicanplat- formsof1968,wasthatpopulationcontrolshouldbeanurgentpriority.A best-sellerpublishedthatyear,PaulEhrlich’sThePopulationBomb,insisted that“thebattletofeedallofhumanityisover.Inthe1970’stheworldwill undergo famines—hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to deathinspiteofanycrashprogramsembarkedonnow.”OntheverydayI ix
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