Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population

538 Pages·2008·1.62 MB·English

by  Matthew Connelly

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