Mercedes de Guardiola is a historian of medicine and public policy whose research examines the history of American eugenics, the pseudo-scientific field of selective human breeding that rose to prominence in the early 1900s and was the foundation of Nazi Germany.

A leading expert on Vermont's eugenics movement, she testified before the Vermont Legislature during the state's formal apology hearings and following responses. She was selected as one of Vermont's three speakers for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's traveling Americans and the Holocaust exhibition as well as to contribute to the Vermont Historical Society’s 50 for 250, a commemorative volume marking America's 250th anniversary.

Her work examines public policies of child health and welfare, mass institutionalization and deinstitutionalization, sterilization, and family separation, and their intergenerational consequences. Forthcoming research will expand this work to the national eugenics movement.

"Vermont for the Vermonters": The History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State

Vermont was one of many American states to adopt eugenics as the basis for public policies such as family separation, institutionalization, and sterilization that targeted the most vulnerable Vermonters and led to widespread intergenerational damage. "Vermont for the Vermonters" is the result of years of research and new scholarship into the story of the eugenics movement in the state. Examining developments from poor farms to mental institutions and public campaigns under Governor Mead and University of Vermont professor Henry Perkins, de Guardiola demonstrates how failing systems of healthcare and public welfare, coupled with preexisting beliefs on human worth, exploded into support for eugenics. She regrounds Vermont's actions and policies in the larger context of the state and the nation's public policies, allowing readers to better understand the motivations and longer-range consequences of the movement.

Order from the Vermont Historical Society and Amazon.

Critical Praise

“This book expands our understanding of eugenics from a narrow moment in Vermont history to a broad pattern of ideas, policies, and programs across two centuries. As a former social studies teacher, I know that facing our history is necessary to build an inclusive, diverse, and thriving future for our state. ‘Vermont for the Vermonters’ is essential reading.”
— Vermont US Representative Becca Balint

“Mercedes de Guardiola’s history of Vermont eugenics is broad in scope, impressively researched, timely, and perhaps most importantly, respectful of the individuals and communities directly impacted by eugenic policies and practices. In clear and engaging prose, de Guardiola exposes the individuals, institutions, and organizations that promoted eugenic measures for many decades. Her work is a vital contribution to the history of poverty, race and ethnicity, and intellectual and psychiatric disability in Vermont.”
— Holly Allen, Middlebury College, author of the digital public history, The Vermont Industrial School: A Dumping Ground for Dependent and Delinquent Youth

“An important historical addition to what we know of the state-sanctioned eugenics policies of the 20th century. De Guardiola’s research shows the investment made by the State of Vermont toward targeting for persecution the most vulnerable Vermonters in the name of genealogical purity, and out of a desire to limit the economic requirements of caring for Vermont citizens with special needs or those determined to be defective because of race, creed, or color.”
— Vermont State Representative Tom Stevens, Washington Chittenden Chair, General and Housing Committee

 
 

“‘Segregation or Sterilization’: Eugenics in the 1912 Vermont State Legislative Session”

“Proper and intelligent selection—segregation or sterilization, whichever seems best in a given case—is the only remedy to prevent this, and the other states in the union from becoming burdened and disgraced by these unfortunates.”

– Dr. Don D. Grout, Superintendent of the Vermont State Hospital for the Insane, 1912

“‘Segregation or Sterilization’: Eugenics in the 1912 Vermont State Legislative Session” examines local, national, and global factors that led to the Vermont state government’s first known attempt to legalize eugenical measures, the legislative successes and failures in the session, and the impact on following eugenical campaigns.

Select Engagements

Invited Lecture — Brattleboro Retreat, April 2026

Keynote Speaker — Vermont Alliance for the Social Studies Annual Conference, December 2024

Invited Lecture — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibition, Vermont, December 2024

Author’s Talk — Green Mountain Book Festival, October 2024

Panelist — Center for Research on Vermont, October 2024

Invited Lecture — Middlebury College, September 2024

Keynote Speaker — Vermont Principals’ Association Conference, August 2024

Invited Lecture — Bennington Museum, March 2024

Author’s Talk — Northshire Books, February 2024

Invited Lecture — Dartmouth College, October 2023

Invited Lecture — Legacy of Eugenics in New England Conference, Harvard University, September 2021

For speaking engagements and press inquiries on bioethics, medical history, and public policy, inquire here.