Scientific facing the "crisis" of civilization. An approach to the mystery man Alexis Carrel.
Keywords:
France, Germany, United States, eugenics, racismAbstract
The article examines the career and legacy of the French-born Nobel laureate Alexis Carrel (1873-1944) as a paradigmatic case of interwar reactionary modernism and cultural despair. Concerned about the “crisis of civilization”, in 1935 Carrel published Man, the Unknown, a book in which he proposed the reconstruction of the individual along fascist and eugenic lines. The book´s success turned the author into one of the most popular vulgarizers of scientific racism. Between 1941 and 1944 he worked for the collaborationist regime of Vichy, heading an institution of sociobiological research aimed at the “improvement” of the population. After his death, and despite his endorsement of Nazi racialbiological policies, Carrel has been claimed for widely different purposes, from cloning research to anti-Arab racism and Islamic fundamentalism.
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ARCHIVOS
Archivos Alexis Carrel (AAC), Georgetown University.
Archivos de la Secretaría de Salud Pública.
