Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-287) and index.

Davenport's Dream: 21st Century Reflections on Heredity and Eugenics is a cautionary tale in two parts. One part is a facsimile of the first and one of the most influential textbooks on human genetics to appear in the 20th century, Charles Davenport's 1911 book Heredity in Relation to Eugenics. The other is a series of reflections by 12 eminent scholars on questions about ourselves and our humanity that preoccupied Davenport and continue to challenge us today - the meaning of genetic variation, the sources of mental illness, the influence of nature versus nurture, and the processes of human evolution. Charles Davenport was an early convert to Mendelism and one of the first to argue that Mendel's laws governed all human characteristics, supporting this view with hundreds of painstakingly collected family pedigrees. His book Heredity in Relation to Eugenics provided an academic basis for the eugenics movement in the United States, a campaign to encourage the gifted to procreate and to "cut off the lower levels" and. "dry up the springs that feed the torrent of defective and degenerate protoplasm," believed to underlie the characteristics of criminals, the "feeble-minded," and the poor.

Although Davenport's science has long been discredited and the eugenic ideals of the early part of the 20th century have been rejected, the hope remains of being able to correct genetic injustices. In the 21st century, increased knowledge of the genetics of many diseases and the sequencing of the human genome offer new possibilities for practicing eugenics at the personal level, as do DNA databases (e.g., deCODE in Iceland), prenatal screening, genetic enhancement, selective sperm banks, and in vitro fertilization and embryo selection. The first part of Davenport's Dream explores these developments through the experience and insights of a group of eminent scholars who discuss topics that preoccupied Davenport - human genetic variation, mental illness, nature versus nurture, and human evolution. Davenports dream of using genetics to improve the human condition has taken new guises in the 21st century, but with the distance of almost 100 years the dangers of combining social and political motives with the practice of science have become very clear, as have the injustices that resulted.