Jukes-Edwards: A Study in Education and Heredity

An early twentieth-century study examines how heredity and upbringing shape social destiny by contrasting a long-traced family characterized by poverty, idleness, and criminality with the descendants of a well-educated clergyman whose household produced industrious, moral citizens. Drawing on Richard L. Dugdale's genealogical inquiry into the Jukes family and extensive case records, it traces patterns of inheritance, home training, and opportunity, then analyzes capacity, character formation, and individual relatives to show how education, domestic discipline, and social institutions can mitigate or amplify inherited tendencies. The work closes with reflections on education's role in social reform and measures to prevent degeneracy.