The Political Gene

This book is an open access title from Arkiv förlag. This means that in addition to the print edition that you can buy from us or from booksellers, there is also a freely available e-book edition, free to read and download here from us.
E-ISBN: 9789179244057
Permanent link: https://doi.org/10.13068/9789179244057
PDF: 9789179244057.pdf

A new science focused on the gene – a term coined in 1909 – entered the Western intellectual scene at the start of the twentieth century. It was based on the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel’s experiments and soon attracted popular and political attention. Since then, the gene has been variously embraced and rejected, honoured and ignored as the crucial factor behind social inequality, racial differences, individual intelligence and much more. Today, we all talk about what is in our DNA.

In this extended personal essay, Bengt Olle Bengtsson reflects on the power of the gene. He does this via a thorough analysis of the how the five main ideologies of our time – conservatism, social democracy, communism, Nazism and liberalism – have reacted to, and acted on, genetic ideas and results. As he shows, this has been a controversial and often passionate relationship. It has shaped politics, justified both social exclusion and unjust hierarchies and inspired ideas of community and identity.

Bengt Olle Bengtsson (1946–2025) was professor emeritus of genetics at Lund University, Sweden.

Ett av bokens kapitel, det om kommunismen, finns tillgängligt på svenska i en tidigare version i vår tidskrift. Direkt till artikeln: https://doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.14.3, hela numret i tryck: https://arkiv.nu/butik/arkiv-tidskrift-for-samhallsanalys-nr-14/.