Mendel’s Theatre: Heredity, Eugenics, and Early Twentieth-century American Drama

Mendel’s Theatre uncovers the rich convergence of scientific theories of heredity, the American eugenics movement, and innovative modern drama from the 1890s to 1930. Obsessions with heredity played out in very different kinds of theatre in the modern period, from fairground exhibits to the plays of prominent European modern dramatists like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, and George Bernard Shaw. The rise of vital American dramatists like Susan Glaspell and Eugene O’Neill took place against this backdrop and alongside the now forgotten but extremely popular eugenics movement in America at the time. Mendel’s Theatre tells that story.

TAMSEN WOLFF is Assistant Professor of English at Princeton University, USA.