Eugenics and Other Evils

This book targets the once-popular view that the State should regulate how (and with whom) its citizens ought to breed. Chesterton talks a lot of good sense about how morally and practically dangerous such regulatory schemes must be, and why they inevitably lead to coercive and intrusive legislation. State control of the population has been deeply discredited since Chesterton wrote but these schemes have a nasty habit of resurfacing. While his subject-matter is serious and often pretty grim, Chesterton never loses his lightness of touch and the book is never dull or preachy.