Dissertation Research: Cold War Conservation: International Science, National Resources, and Reproductive Limits

本论文项目通过关注战后国际保护及其对土地利用规划和人口控制的影响，探讨了二十世纪生物决定论历史上未被研究的方面。 国际战后的保护工作主张发挥主要作用，这表明生物科学和社会科学之间的关系有所改变。 弗兰克·弗雷泽·达林（Frank Fraser Darling）、朱利安·赫胥黎（Julian Huxley）、费尔菲尔德·奥斯本（Fairfield Osborn）和威廉·沃格特（William Vogt）认为，如果人类要生存下去，生物学必须成为社会秩序的仲裁者。 环境决定了种群的最佳密度，这意味着只有生物学家才能判断什么构成了数量和质量上合适的种群。 这四位国际知名人士都是热心的自然保护主义者，他们参与了联合国教科文组织认可的非政府组织国际自然保护联盟（IUCN）的成立。 对1950年代世界自然保护联盟倡议的研究将揭示冷战期间有关生殖限制和资源稀缺的生物和政治关切对土地利用规划和人口控制的意义和影响。

This dissertation project explores unexamined aspects of the history of biological determinism in the twentieth century through a focus on postwar international conservation and its influence upon land-use planning and human population control. International post-war conservation efforts asserted a primary role suggesting a revised relationship between the biological and the social sciences. Frank Fraser Darling, Julian Huxley, Fairfield Osborn, and William Vogt claimed biology must be the arbiter of the social order if the human species is to survive. Environmental determination of a populations's optimum density meant that only biologists could judge what constituted a quantitatively and qualitatively appropriate population. These four international figures were ardent conservationists who participated in the founding of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUNC), a non-governmental organization recognized by UNESCO. A study of IUCN initiatives in the 1950's will reveal much about the significance and influence of biological and political concerns regarding reproductive limits and resource scarcity on land-use planning and population control during the Cold War.