Fitter, Happier

This week’s review considers how 20th-century discourse on cancer increased research on the disease, yet minimized patients’ experiences by mirroring language of the eugenics movement.

Posted on July 22, 2024 in Reviews of the Month

Fitter, Happier: The Eugenic Strain in Twentieth-Century Cancer Rhetoric

Agnew, Lois Peters. Alabama, 2024
188p bibl index, 9780817321857 $120.00, 9780817361341 $34.95, 9780817394875 $34.95

Agnew (Syracuse Univ.) convincingly argues that the rhetoric of cancer in the 20th century raised awareness of a disease previously hidden from public discourse and constructed and reinforced an ideal of fitness that promoted strength, resilience, progress, and individualism. The language of eugenics resonates strongly throughout this rhetoric, and Agnew reveals how the history of cancer publicity was linked to eugenic organizations. Tracing the metaphors and stories used to talk about cancer—including the war against cancer, the links between cancer and melancholy, and others—Agnew demonstrates the complicated ways that cancer rhetoric has saved lives and promoted medical research while also rendering invisible the suffering of real individuals with cancer and shifting the accountability for a cancer diagnosis onto the individual. The discourse of disability studies frames much of the argument, and Agnew is careful to explain the similarities and differences in the ways that cancer and disability function in rhetoric and the cultural narratives they support and reinforce. Drawing parallels between cancer and COVID-19 rhetorics, Agnew demonstrates the relevance of her study across multiple disciplines.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals.
Reviewer: M. Anderson, Southern Oregon University
Subject: Humanities – Communication
Choice Issue: Aug 2024

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