The War Against Fertility

April 1, 2008

It is a cliché but nevertheless true that philanthropists and government bureaucrats often do more harm than good, not least when they set out to change the world. In the second half of the 20th century they actually tried to control the world’s population. The idea was to encourage — even coerce — the women of the Third World to have fewer children. In “Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population,” Matthew Connelly, a professor at Columbia University, traces the rise and fall of the population-control movement and describes its bitter legacy. (Wall Street Journal)