Book Review: The Shortest History of Eugenics

Erik L. Peterson, The Shortest History of Eugenics. New York: The Experiment, 2024. ISBN: 9781891011887. 

Genre: history 

Subgenre: eugenics

Series: Shortest history

Source: Hutchins Library, Berea College 

 

As I was reading this book, the news just kept showing headlines of bad policy choices affecting the poor and marginalized. Those choices are forms of eugenics in our time, even if we don't call them "eugenics" nowadays. If anything, the idea of eugenics has been around since ancient times, and it is with us still today. Eugenics today can still be found in colonialism, imperialism, racism, responses to natural disasters, reproductive rights, and genetic manipulation among other places. The word might not be used often now, but the rhetoric and ideas are very much present still. 

The book is arranged in five major parts with 21 chapters. We go from ca. 500 in antiquity to the present day. Note this book was published in 2024. The author guides us from Europe to America (mostly the United States, but there were some eugenic efforts in Latin America too). 

The book is interesting overall. It covers a lot of terrain. It may be "the shortest history," but it hits all the major points. We learn about the major figures, thinkers, scientists, politicians, and philanthropists who nurtured and spread the movement. No matter their reasons nor their justifications, in the end it was all about elevating and preserving one part of the human species, the one deemed as the good one, at the expense of the ones deemed as bad and undesirable. Race, mental health, criminality (real or perceived), poverty, so on were all good reasons to cull the herd. 

A key lesson is that Europeans mostly refined theories, but Americans took those theories and ran with them. Americans took to eugenics gladly, and states enacted all kinds of eugenic policies including various forms of sterilization and even explored forms of euthanasia. They did such a splendid job that Hitler and the Nazis basically modeled their eugenic policies, especially in the early days of the regime, on American laws and policies. 

If you know little to nothing on the topic, this is a good and accessible book to read. Even if you know about the topic or you think you know, it is a good reading option. Narrative is well written, and it offers a good reading pace. This book was hard to put down. This is a book for popular readers, but some academics may want to read it and maybe use it in some classes. This is a book I recommend for public and academic libraries. 

5 out of 5 stars. 

 

Additional reading notes:  

The bottom line of eugenics: 

"In other words, eugenics has always been about the powerful, the wealthy, and connected influencing, if not outright controlling, the reproduction of the less-powerful, poorer, and more marginalized, with scalpels if necessary-- that's what we mean by eugenics" (6, emphasis in original). 

By the way, the book includes a good selection of pictures and illustrations throughout. 

 

Kellogg, the cereal guy, contributing to eugenics: 

"Kellogg's pus for a heredity registry became one of his two most important contributions to the eugenics movement in the early twentieth century. His other contribution was even more significant: national promotion" (82). 

 

As for the Nazis, after Nuremberg, well not everyone who should've been punished was, and the West certainly drew medical and scientific gains no one really considers closely: 

"In too many cases, the experimental work that emerged from Holocaust-enhanced collections became mainstream science, with those behind Aktion T-4 and the rest rehabilitated as ordinary physicians and scientists" (176, emphasis in original). 

 

 This book qualifies for the following 2026 Reading Challenge: 

 

 

 

Deck Review: Mystic Palette Tarot

Ciro Marchetti (artist) and Lee Bursten (book author), Mystic Palette Tarot. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, 2024. ISBN: 9780738776149. (link to publisher) 

Genre: Tarot 

Subgenre: steampunk, fantasy

Format: Softcover companion book and 78-card deck

Source: I own this one  

 

The Fool- 0 card 

This kit includes a companion book written by Lee Bursten and the 78-card deck by Ciro Marchetti. The book has 119 pages, and it is arranged as follows: 

• Preface. This provides a small overview of the deck, its themes, and structure. Given the deck uses Roman numerals throughout, a small review of Roman numerals is provided too. Bursten does not favor reading reversals; he believes the rich artwork provides "all the nuance and depth a reader could desire" (viii). However, if you do read reversals feel free to do so.
• Introduction by Ciro Marchetti. He discusses the artistic process in making the deck. 
• Part One: The Major Arcana. Each entry includes description and interpretation text, keyword meanings, astrology (correspondence keywords), and Hebrew letter for the card. Each entry includes an image from the card, a small detail or element from the card in black and white.
• Part Two: Minor Arcana: We get a brief explanation of the minors; suits and the court cards; this can be helpful for beginners. Card entries here are much shorter. For the Minor Arcana cards you get interpretation text and an astrology note (correspondence). You also get a small black and white image from a card. For the court cards, you only get a short paragraph per card; it may feel like you got shorted on the court cards compared to the rest of the Minor Arcana. 
• Part Three: The Mystic Palette Spread and Sample Readings. This includes a 7-card spread. Bursten writes that "the purpose of this spread is to examine the background, ramifications, and feelings around an action proposed to the taken by the querent" (113). This is a spread you can use with this deck or any other deck. We also get two sample readings using the spread, and these can be helpful for learners. 

The book overall is good but not great. It is richly illustrated with black and white as well as color images. The card entries provide just enough information. Like other companion books, you get the substance in the Major Arcana entries. The Minor Arcana entries are much shorter with just the basics. Meanings at times can be vague, but that is to encourage you to really look at the art, use your imagination and intuition more. That can be a good thing. 

Can you read the cards without reading the book? Yes, but there are some different than the usual interpretations offered in the book. Some card texts do offer a different take, so I'd suggest reading the book. The book is a relatively easy read; the text keeps the esoteric jargon to a minimum.  

Two of Swords 

The card art is gorgeous. It is colorful and bright. It is rich in detail and very expressive. If you read intuitively, this deck can be a good option. The art falls within the Rider Waite Smith (RWS) tradition, so if you read within RWS, you should be good to go. If you've enjoyed Marchetti's art before, you will probably enjoy this deck. For me, his Legacy of the Divine Tarot (link to review) is a favorite that for me is his masterpiece, but this deck for me is now a close second. I appreciate his take on the Fool and their journey, and others may appreciate it as well. 

The cards measure about 5 1/2 inches by 3 1/4 inches. The cards are on the larger side, so for some folks they may not be easy to shuffle. It took me some work to shuffle the deck. However, the large size allows you to better appreciate the art, especially the small details. For me the larger size makes this deck a good choice for public readings. Lay them out on a nice cloth, and they look great. Your clients will be able to see and appreciate the art better with the larger size.

The cards have a glossy finish, fairly smooth. The cards do not stick. The card back has a nice sun design that is not quite reversible. 

Overall, I love this deck, and I am glad to have it in my collection. Marchetti fans will want to add it to their collections. As I mentioned, a good option for public readings. It feels like a good all around deck you can use any time of the year. I'd give it as a gift, and I'd consider getting a back up copy. 

5 out of 5 stars. 

This kit qualifies for the following 2026 Reading Challenge: 

 

Deck Review: Cat Tarot

Megan Lynn Kott (artist) and Julia Smillie (writer), Cat Tarot. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2019.  ISBN: 9781452173634. (Link to publisher.) 

The Hermit-IX 

This kit comes with a small companion book and the 78-card deck. The box itself has a cute detail where you see a cat peeking out from inside the box. We all know how cats love to get in boxes. 

The book has 107 pages. It is arranged as follows: 

• Introduction. A bit on the connection of people and cats. It also gives a brief note on Tarot history. 
• The Deck. A description of the deck's structure. The suit symbols are outlined and defined. 
• Preparing for the reading. Just a paragraph with advice on how to get ready to do a reading. 
• Spreads and layouts. You get the single card draw and a 3-card draw, and five additional spreads. 
• The Reading. Advice on how to do a reading, a few things to keep in mind according to the writer. 
• The Major Arcana. Each entry includes a black and white image of a card. You then get a descriptive sentence followed by upright and reversed meanings. The meanings get a paragraph each. 
• Minor Arcana. Entries are similar to the Major Arcana cards, but the card image is smaller. 

The book is pretty basic. It's an easy read. It gives just enough information for beginners. The card meanings are down to earth and well connected to the lessons cats teach us. We see Tarot through feline eyes in a light and heartwarming way. Can you read the cards without the book? Maybe. I'd say read the book anyways to get that feline perspective. 

Two of Cups 

The card art is from paintings by the artist. We get a variety of images showing cats going about their daily lives. The watercolor art softens the art in a good way. The art does not totally follow Rider Waite Smith (RWS), but there is enough for RWS readers to see what they need. The deck can work well for intuitive readers, especially if they've observed their own cats. The cats look very natural overall. Heck, if you just want some good cart art to look at or display, this deck is a good option. 

For card readers, this deck is responsive, expressive, and easy to use. I found it to be a good and light reader. I'd add that if you love cats and read Tarot, this is a good option for your collection. 

The cards measure about 4 3/4 inches by 2 3/4 inches. Cards have a glossy finish, but they shuffle with relative ease. The card back art is reversible. 

Overall, I really like this deck. Cat lovers who read cards will want to add it to their collections. I do recommend this one. It can work for beginners as well as advanced readers. It is one I am glad to have in my collection. 

5 out of 5 stars.  

 

Book Review: Curiosa

Barton Lidicé Beneš, Curiosa: celebrity relics, historical fossils, & other metamorphic rubbish. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002. ISBN: 9780810935372. 

Genre: art

Subgenre: found objects, photography

Format: hardcover

Source: Via Hutchins Library ILL. Book came from Boyd County Public Library, Ashland, KY.  

I picked this up because someone I can't recall now mentioned it on my social media. The book collects the art of Barton Benes. The artist takes ordinary and mundane objects, and he transforms them into contemporary relics. No subject nor object is off limits to the artist. Some examples of objects he has used in his art include: 

• A throat lozenge Bill Clinton spit out. 
• Larry Hagman's gallstone.
• Madonna's panties.
• A bit of glass from the car crash where Princess Diana died. 

The artist acquires the objects in various ways. Sometimes he asks and receives. He may trade for a specific object. Very often people just send him things. Very rarely if ever does he have to pay for an object. 

The book's subject matter can be interesting, especially if you have a bit of a morbid interest. A big issue for me is the book's layout. In trying to be comprehensive, we get some pages with many rows of artifact boxes, some of which may be difficult to read what they are. Also, some of the text layout paragraphs can be a bit hard to read at times. The larger photos are a bit better in terms of quality and easier to view. Overall the book's layout is not great. In addition, the text is not really that interesting. Shorter commentary on selected objects may have been a better option. 

Art libraries and museums that have or display his works may want the book. So will his fans and some collectors. I'd consider this optional for smaller academic libraries and public libraries. The art as a whole is interesting and can be fascinating. Book format and layout really detract from the reading experience. It's basically a book to look through and move on.  In the end, it was just OK for me. 

2 out of 5 stars. 

 

Media Notes: Roundup for September 2026

 

  

 

Welcome to my somewhat random selection of the movies and series on DVD and/or online I watched during September 2026.

Movies and films (links to IMDB.com for basic information unless noted otherwise). Some of these I watched via TubiTv.com or other online source. The DVDs come from the public library (unless noted otherwise). In addition, I will try to add other trivia notes, such as when a film is based on a book adding the information about the book (at least the WorldCat record if available). 

• The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024. Action. War). Plot description: "During World War II, the British Army assigns a group of competent soldiers to carry out a mission against the Nazi forces behind enemy lines... A true story about a secret British WWII organization — the Special Operations Executive. Founded by Winston Churchill, their irregular warfare against the Germans helped to change the course of the war, and gave birth to modern black operations." Movie has the "based on a true story" label which means they probably took a lot of liberties with the story to make it entertaining. The movie is good enough. Not great. Some good action moments, but some of the pace can also be a bit on the slow side. Performances are decent enough. If you like movies like The Dirty Dozen, you might like this one. 3.5 out of 5 stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 9/5.
• The Sleeping Car (1990. Horror). Plot description: "Jason moves into an abandoned train car where he resurrects the vicious ghost of his landlady's dead husband... The Mister. After some near-fatal encounters with the violent specter, he consults a local exorcist." Movie starts with a train accident where The Mister, who was the train conductor at the time, fails to get his philandering assistant to do his job of watch. Train crashes and blows up; Mister manages to jump off. From there, we move to ten years later, and the movie starts properly. I think I heard of this movie from one of those lists of underrated horror movies you see on YouTube. Well, movie can stay underrated. It is seriously slow. The horror is relatively minimal. The ending to be honest was kind of ridiculous, and a bit of nonsense even for a nonsensical movie like this. Much of the movie just feels like filler to be honest. 1 out of 5 stars barely. Via TubiTv. Watched 9/5. 
• Jeff Conaway is in this one. You may know him from Babylon 5.  
• Movie at times is like a bad sitcom where everybody just walks into the protagonist's living space, the sleeping car, given he leaves the door open and unlocked. The visitors all have a bit of a quirk, kind of like in a sitcom, without the comedy elements.
• Night Train to Terror (1985. Horror. Anthology). Plot description: "God and Satan are on a train discussing the fate of three individuals. The stories of the people in question are told in a trio of very strange vignettes. One involves an insane asylum with some very interesting treatment plans. Another involves a 'death club'. The final story shows us the adventures of a server of Satan."  Movie starts with a small musical number, very 80s, before we move on to the scene with God and Satan sitting across each other.If you read the Wikipedia article, which has brief synopsis of each story, they sound pretty good. On film, some of the segments' scenes may be very concise, so you need to watch closely to catch some of the details. The band playing music sort of serves as a bit of transition between the stories. As you keep watching, the scenes are often short, ending abruptly. Transitions are not very good and can make the stories inconsistent in pace and plot. At times, the movie just feels incoherent. Oh, and those brief creature effects do not help the movie. I tend to like anthology films, but this one just does not hold up. Willing to give it 1.5 out of 5 stars, a bit below OK for a film, but mainly because I have seen worse, a lot worse. I do wonder what could have been if the stories had become finished films as originally planned. They'd probably still be cheesy horror films, but likely better than this. Via TubiTv. Watched 9/25.
• Richard Moll, often known for his bailiff character "Bull" Shannon in Night Court, appears in two of the stories as different characters.  
• As Tubi offers it, the film lacks closed captioning.
• Trivia  note: the stories were filmed before intended to be full films, but those never happened, so the content they got went into this anthology. This may account for the very compressed element of the storytelling. At times, there is a bit of narrative voiceover in the stories to move the stories along or add details we might miss otherwise.
• Movie is an example of a Z-movie.  I thought B- and C-movies were low, but they are masterpieces compared to a Z-movie, and I can see the label fits for this messy anthology.
• The Mummy (1999. Action. Adventure.) Plot description: "As archaeologists dig for a long-lost treasure in Hamunaptra, an ancient city in the Egyptian desert, a 3,000-year-old legacy of terror is unearthed." I remember watching this one around time it came out, and I remember that I enjoyed. Tubi got it in this month, so decided to rewatch it. They got the trilogy in this month, so I will see if I can get all three in. The movie is still a pretty good and fun action film. It does take time to build the mythology as it builds up the action. If you like a good adventure film that nods to the old school of adventure, this will do nicely. It is entertaining, good action, a bit of humor, and touch of horror. Brenda Frasier's performance as the reluctant hero and adventurer is pretty good. Rest of the cast is pretty good too, and the special effects work well. In the end, a good popcorn entertaining film. I am willing to give it 5 out of 5 stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 9/26. 
• The Mummy Returns (2001. Action. Adventure.) Plot description: "Fearless adventurer Rick O'Connell races against time to save his son and the world from the dual threat of Imhotep and the Scorpion King."  I continue watching the series with the first sequel to the 1999 film. This one gets a bit silly at times, and I am not sure it needed to be two hours like the first one. Still, it is mostly entertaining, and a decent popcorn adventure movie. It still has some humor as the original did. Most performances were decent, though I found the O'Connells' kid a bit irritating at times, but otherwise the film as a whole does entertain. Special effects were mostly good, except for the by now somewhat infamous effects of the Scorpion King in the last act that did not turn out as well, but still workable. I did find myself enjoying the musical soundtrack at times; some of it added a nice epic element to the film. Not a great sequel, but decent enough. If you enjoyed the first one, odds are you may like this one as well. 4 out of 5 stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 9/26. 

 

 

Television and other series (basic show information links via Wikipedia unless noted otherwise). Some of these come in DVD from the public library. Others may be via YouTube, which, as noted before, I keep finding all sorts of other old shows in it, often full episodes:

• How It's Made (2001-2019. Documentary).  Documentary series that focuses on how common items are made. As I noted last month when I started watching it, TubiTv has 24 of the 32 seasons, which is still plenty to watch. I start September with Season 1, Episode 8.
• My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding (2012-2018. Reality television). I linked to the Wikipedia entry for the plot, etc.  TubiTv had this, and I figured I'd watch an episode or two in order to just watch something that did not require much brain power, and in that regard it fit the bill. I ended up binging the whole series here and there over the month. In a nutshell, it is comparable to any drama you might see on the Jerry Springer Show. To be honest, not very flattering of the gypsies it claims to represent. The men in the show all come across as serious chauvinistic pigs, think not unlike the guys in the Jersey Shore series, except gypsy instead of Italian American, less tanned, more trashy, while the women are mostly a tradwife stereotype in love with bling. 
• One detail that is eye catching are the very expensive dresses the women wear for weddings and other occasions such as Sweet 16 and even infants for baptisms. Many of the dresses are made by Sondra Celli. Note that dress prices are never mentioned in the program, but given that Celli's website mentions the most basic dress starts at about $3,000, and the dresses on the show are blinged and highly jeweled, we are likely talking at least $10K for a dress and up easily. 
• There are a few LGBTQ episodes in the series that are kind of sweet. Sure, they still have the show's usual drama, but they are the nicer episodes in the series despite fact that Gypsies, at least as portrayed in the show, are not accepting of gay people.
• This show is a spinoff of a British show. Basically one of those "freak" shows that TLC tends to feature nowadays. To think TLC was once "The Learning Channel."
• The show is pretty much your typical reality show with ramped up drama and more than a few liberties. So like other TLC shows, don't go looking to a show like this for any cultural insights or educational content. It's as trashy as they come.  This article sums up the various issues and controversies of the show; article draws some material from this other article out of The New Republic and a few other news sources. On a side note, the one young lady who wanted to become a wrestler, according to some online research, did go on to become a wrestler and even got work in the WWE. 
• I think overall I've filled my quota of trashy television for a while now. This was like watching a terrible car wreck. You want to avoid it but can't help looking.