Widespread coercive sterilization programs are most closely associated with the Nazis and World War II atrocities. Less frequently are they recognized as efforts that were undertaken by American lawmakers, scientists, and health care providers. Mark A. Largent explores the history of compulsory sterilization in the United States by examining the assumptions and motivations that led to the coerced sterilization of tens of thousands of Americans during the twentieth century.

The book begins in the mid-nineteenth century, when American medical doctors began advocating the sterilization of citizens they deemed degenerate. By the turn of the twentieth century, physicians, biologists, and social scientists championed the cause, and lawmakers in two-thirds of the United States enacted laws that required the sterilization of various criminals, mental health patients, epileptics, and syphilitics. The movement lasted well into the latter half of the century, and Largent shows how even today the sentiments that motivated coerced sterilization persist as certain public figures advocate compulsory birth control--such as progesterone shots for male criminals or female welfare recipients--based on the same notions and prejudices that had brought about thousands of coerced sterilizations decades ago.