The modern field and term were first formulated by Sir Francis Galton in 1883,[10] drawing on the recent work of his half-cousin Charles Darwin.[citation needed] At its peak of popularity eugenics was supported by prominent people, including Margaret Sanger,[11][12] Marie Stopes, H. G. Wells, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, Emile Zola, George Bernard Shaw, John Maynard Keynes, John Harvey Kellogg, Linus Pauling[13] and Sidney Webb.[14][15][16] Its most infamous proponent and practitioner was however Adolf Hitler who praised and incorporated eugenic ideas in Mein Kampf, and emulated Eugenic legislation for the sterilization of "defectives" that had been pioneered in the United States.[17]

There was a vigorous eugenics movement in the USA, especially notable between the two world wars. The dark side of this movement resulted in women being sterilized without their consent or knowledge. The Rockefeller Foundation sponsored the spread of eugenics in Germany.

Of course the wealthy and their foundations were heavily involved:

Eugenics would have been so much bizarre parlor talk had it not been for extensive financing by corporate philanthropies, specifically the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Harriman railroad fortune. They were all in league with some of America's most respected scientists hailing from such prestigious universities as Stamford, Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. These academicians espoused race theory and race science, and then faked and twisted data to serve eugenics' racist aims. (Emphasis added.)