Social Darwinism 45541 224408621 2008-07-08T18:46:57Z Dave souza 85186 Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/67.114.109.61|67.114.109.61]] ([[User talk:67.114.109.61|talk]]) to last version by Jeremy68 '''Social Darwinism''' is a theory that competition among all individuals, groups, nations or ideas drives [[social evolution]] in human societies.{{Verify source|date=May 2008}} The term draws upon [[Charles Darwin]]'s theory of [[natural selection]], where competition between individual [[organism]]s drives biological evolutionary change ([[speciation]]) through the [[survival of the fittest]]. The term was popularized in 1944 by the [[United States|American]] [[historian]] [[Richard Hofstadter]], and has generally been used by critics rather than advocates of what the term is supposed to represent.<ref>Bannister, 1979; Hodgson, 2004</ref> While the term has been applied to the claim that Darwin's theory of [[evolution]] by [[natural selection]] can be used to understand the social endurance of a nation or country, social Darwinism commonly refers to ideas that predate Darwin's publication of ''[[On the Origin of Species]]''. Others whose ideas are given the label include the 18th century clergyman [[Thomas Malthus]], and Darwin's cousin [[Francis Galton]] who founded [[eugenics]] towards the end of the 19th century. Some{{Who|date=May 2008}} claim that it supports [[racism]] on the lines set out by [[Arthur de Gobineau]] before Darwin published his theories, which directly contradict Darwin's own work.<!--not according to the articles or sources such as D&M However, some academic critics hold that social Darwinism is a constructed concept, because Darwin originally wanted many of his findings to be translated into [[social policy]] (see [[Eugenics]] and ''[[The Descent of Man]]'').--> This classification of social Darwinism constitutes part of the reaction against the [[Nazi]] regime and the [[Holocaust]].{{Fact|date=May 2008}} ==Theories and origins== [[Image:Herbert Spencer.jpg|thumb|Herbert Spencer]] Despite the fact that social [[Darwinism]] bears Darwin's name and his works were widely read by social Darwinists, the theory also draws from the work of many other authors, including [[Herbert Spencer]], [[Thomas Malthus]], and [[Francis Galton]], the founder of [[eugenics]]. Darwin himself gave serious consideration to Galton's work, but thought the ideas of "hereditary improvement" impractical. Aware of weaknesses in his own family, Darwin was sure that families would naturally refuse such selection and wreck the scheme. He thought that even if compulsory registration was the only way to improve the human race, this illiberal idea would be unacceptable, and it would be better to publicize the "principle of inheritance" and let people decide for themselves.<ref>{{harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|p=598}}</ref> In ''[[The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex]]'' of 1882 he described how medical advances meant that the weaker were able to survive and have families, and commented on the effects of this, while cautioning that hard reason should not override sympathy, and considering how other factors might reduce the effect – {{quotation|Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.<br>The aid which we feel impelled to give to the helpless is mainly an incidental result of the instinct of sympathy, which was originally acquired as part of the social instincts, but subsequently rendered, in the manner previously indicated, more tender and more widely diffused. Nor could we check our sympathy, even at the urging of hard reason, without deterioration in the noblest part of our nature. The surgeon may harden himself whilst performing an operation, for he knows that he is acting for the good of his patient; but if we were intentionally to neglect the weak and helpless, it could only be for a contingent benefit, with an overwhelming present evil. ... We must therefore bear the undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and propagating their kind; but there appears to be at least one check in steady action, namely that the weaker and inferior members of society do not marry so freely as the sound; and this check might be indefinitely increased by the weak in body or mind refraining from marriage, though this is more to be hoped for than expected.<ref>{{harvnb|Darwin|1882|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F955&pageseq=157 134] }}</ref> }} Herbert Spencer's ideas, like those of evolutionary progressivism, stemmed from his reading of Thomas Malthus, and his later theories were influenced by those of Darwin. However, Spencer's major work, ''Progress: Its Law and Cause'' (1857) was released two years before the publication of Darwin's ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'', and ''First Principles'' was printed in 1860. In regard to social institutions, there is a good case that Spencer's writings might be classified as 'social Darwinism'. He argues that the individual (rather than the collectivity) is the unit of analysis that evolves, that evolution takes place through natural selection, and that it affects social as well as biological phenomena. In many ways Spencer's theory of cosmic evolution has much more in common with the works of [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck|Lamarck]] and [[Auguste Comte]]'s [[positivism]] work than Darwin. [[Image:Thomas Malthus.jpg|frame|left|Thomas Malthus]] Spencer's work also served to renew interest in the work of Malthus. While Malthus's work does not itself qualify as social Darwinism, his 1798 work ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'', was incredibly popular and widely read by social Darwinists. In that book, for example, the author argued that as an increasing population would normally outgrow its food supply, this would result in the starvation of the weakest and a [[Malthusian catastrophe]]. According to [[Michael Ruse]], Darwin read Malthus' famous ''Essay on a Principle of Population'' in 1838, four years after Malthus' death. Malthus himself anticipated the social Darwinists in suggesting that charity could exacerbate social problems. Another of these social interpretations of Darwin's biological views, later known as [[eugenics]], was put forth by Darwin's cousin, Francis Galton, in 1865 and 1869. Galton argued that just as physical traits were clearly inherited among generations of people, so could be said for mental qualities (genius and talent). Galton argued that social morals needed to change so that heredity was a conscious decision, in order to avoid over-breeding by "less fit" members of society and the under-breeding of the "more fit" ones. [[Image:Francis Galton 1850s.jpg|thumb|right|Francis Galton]] In Galton's view, social institutions such as [[Social welfare provision|welfare]] and [[psychiatric hospital|insane asylums]] were allowing "inferior" humans to survive and reproduce at levels faster than the more "superior" humans in respectable society, and if corrections were not soon taken, society would be awash with "inferiors." Darwin read his cousin's work with interest, and devoted sections of ''Descent of Man'' to discussion of Galton's theories. Neither Galton nor Darwin, though, advocated any eugenic policies such as those which would be undertaken in the early 20th century, as government coercion of any form was very much against their political opinions. [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]'s philosophy addressed the question of artificial selection, but it was built against Darwinian theories of natural selection. His point of view on sickness and health, in particular, opposed him to the concept of biological adaptation, forged by Spencer's "fitness". He criticized both Haeckel, Spencer, and Darwin, sometimes under the same banner. Nietzsche thought that, in specific cases, sickness was necessary and even helpful.<ref> Barbara Stiegler, ''Nietzsche et la biologie'', [[PUF]], 2001, p.90. ISBN 2-13-050742-5. See, for ex., ''[[Genealogy of Morals]]'', III, 13 [http://malaspina.edu/~johnstoi/Nietzsche/genealogy3.htm#13 here] </ref> Thus, he wrote: {{quotation|Wherever progress is to ensue, deviating natures are of greatest importance. Every progress of the whole must be preceded by a partial weakening. The strongest natures retain the type, the weaker ones help to advance it.<br> Something similar also happens in the individual. There is rarely a degeneration, a truncation, or even a vice or any physical or moral loss without an advantage somewhere else. In a warlike and restless clan, for example, the sicklier man may have occasion to be alone, and may therefore become quieter and wiser; the one-eyed man will have one eye the stronger; the blind man will see deeper inwardly, and certainly hear better. To this extent, the famous theory of the survival of the fittest does not seem to me to be the only viewpoint from which to explain the progress of strengthening of a man or of a race.<ref> [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], ''[[Human, All Too Human]]'', §224 [http://www.publicappeal.org/library/nietzsche/Nietzsche_human_all_too_human/sect5_signs_of_higher_and_lower_culture.htm here]</ref> }} The publication of [[Ernst Haeckel]]'s best-selling ''Welträtsel'' ('Riddle of the Universe') in 1899 brought social Darwinism and earlier ideas of racial hygiene to a very wide audience, and its [[recapitulation theory]] became famous. This led to the formation of the [[monism|Monist League]] in 1904 with many prominent citizens among its members, including the [[Nobel Prize]] winner [[Wilhelm Ostwald]]. By 1909 it had a membership of some six thousand people. {{Fact|date=April 2007}} The simpler aspects of social Darwinism followed the earlier Malthusian ideas that humans, especially males, need competition in their lives in order to survive in the future, and that the poor should have to provide for themselves and not be given any aid, although most social Darwinists of the early twentieth century supported better working conditions and salaries, thus giving the poor a better chance to provide for themselves and distinguishing those who are capable of succeeding from those who are poor out of laziness, weakness, or inferiority. {| class="wikitable" |- ==Darwinism and Hypotheses of Social Change== {{See|Social evolution}} The term "social Darwinism" first appeared in an 1879 article in ''[[Popular Science]]'' by Oscar Schmidt, followed by an anarchist tract published in Paris in 1880 entitled "Le darwinisme social" by Émile Gautier. However, the use of the term was very rare&mdash;at least in the [[English language|English]]-speaking world (Hodgson, 2004)&mdash;until the American historian [[Richard Hofstadter]] published his influential ''Social Darwinism in American Thought'' (1944) during [[World War II]]. Hypotheses of [[social evolution]] and [[Sociocultural evolution|cultural evolution]] are common in Europe. The [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] thinkers who preceded Darwin, such as [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegel]], often argued that societies progressed through stages of increasing development. Earlier thinkers also emphasized conflict as an inherent feature of social life. [[Thomas Hobbes]]'s 17th century portrayal of the [[state of nature]] seems analogous to the competition for natural resources described by Darwin. Social Darwinism is distinct from other theories of social change because of the way it draws Darwin's distinctive ideas from the field of biology into social studies. Darwin's unique discussion of evolution was over the [[supernatural]] in human development. Unlike Hobbes, he believed that this struggle for natural resources allowed individuals with certain physical and mental traits to succeed more frequently than others, and that these traits accumulated in the population over time, which under certain conditions could lead to the descendants being so different that they would be defined as a new species. However, Darwin felt that "social [[instinct]]s" such as "sympathy" and "[[moral philosophy|moral sentiments]]" also evolved through [[natural selection]], and that these resulted in the strengthening of societies in which they occurred, so much so that he wrote about it in [[Descent of Man]]: "The following proposition seems to me in a high degree probable- namely, that any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, the parental and filial affections being here included, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual powers had become as well, or nearly as well developed, as in man. For, firstly, the social instincts lead an animal to take pleasure in the society of its fellows, to feel a certain amount of sympathy with them, and to perform various services for them."<ref>[[s:Descent of Man/Chapter IV|Descent of Man, chapter 4]] ISBN 1-57392-176-9</ref><includeonly>{{{category|}}}</includeonly> Social Darwinism, combined with National Efficiency was the main reason for the great social reforms of the early 1900s.{{Fact|date=April 2008}} After the landslide 1906 election, [[David Lloyd George]] and [[Winston Churchill]] began to reform society according to the [[Rowntree]] Report. The report detailed poor people from [[York]] and explained that although they tried hard to lift themselves of their poverty, it was nearly always impossible. This changed the social view that the poor were lazy and stupid, and new policies were made concerning the 'Deserving Poor'. These social reforms earned the Liberal Party the title 'Fathers of the Welfare State' and were largely down to Social Darwinism. ==Influence== Social Darwinism can be found in the [[Play (theatre)|plays]] of [[August Strindberg]] which give dramatic form to the grotesque sexual antagonisms of the constant war against men and women. ==United States== Spencer proved to be an incredibly popular figure in the 1870s, particularly in the [[United States]]. Authors such as [[Edward L. Youmans]], [[William Graham Sumner]], [[John Fiske]], [[John W. Burgess]], and other thinkers of the [[gilded age]] all developed theories of social Darwinism as a result of their exposure to Spencer (as well as Darwin). Sumner never fully embraced Darwinian ideas, and some contemporary historians do not believe that Sumner ever actually believed in social Darwinism.<ref>"<cite>A careful reading of the theories of Sumner and Spencer exonerates them from the century-old charge of social Darwinism in the strict sense of the word. They did not themselves advocate the application of Darwin's theory of natural selection.</cite>" [http://print.google.com/print?id=7BJUIOnC534C&pg=PA33&lpg=PA33&dq=bannister+social+darwinism&prev=http://books.google.com/books%3Fq%3Dbannister%2Bsocial%2Bdarwinism%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a&sig=w_af5g6OzVWG-hgUu3sYUUJcIM8&pli=1&auth=DQAAAGkAAADLyWTynwQEsSIybdJkKg8_AeJlL9zHpKGWUlfY7GKH8ipNUBIA-XF0MrEscS0fSnV5c_QwPpCxm34JbdATnfBBTkA0Sm-SiLNH9_YMzUjYdLDR8Uyb-N7KfG_Y1SUHITHVHOcbY1x3Ejg3ZgP0BRXb The Social Meaning of Modern Biology: From Social Darwinism to Sociobiology]</ref> The great majority of American businessmen rejected the anti-philanthropic implications of the theory. Instead they gave millions to build schools, colleges, hospitals, art institutes, parks and many other institutions. [[Andrew Carnegie]], who admired Spencer, was the leading philanthropist in the world (1890-1920), and a major leader against imperialism and warfare. H.G Wells was heavily influenced by Darwinist thought, and novelist [[Jack London]] wrote stories of survival that incorporate his views on social Darwinism.<ref>"<cite>Borrowing from Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, social Darwinists believed that societies, as do organisms evolve over time. Nature then determined that the strong survive and the weak perish. In Jack London's case, he thought that certain favored races were destined for survival, mainly those that could preserve themselves while supplanting others, as in the case of the White race.</cite>" [http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Essays/philosophy.html The philosophy of Jack London]</ref><includeonly>{{{category|}}}</includeonly> ==Criticisms and controversies== Some pre-twentieth century doctrines subsequently described as social Darwinism appear to anticipate [[eugenics]] (despite the fact that Darwin did not advocate eugenic policies<ref name=hitler-eugenics>{{cite web |url=http://www.expelledexposed.com/index.php/the-truth/hitler-eugenics |title=Hitler & Eugenics |accessdate=2008-06-09 |date=National Center for Science Education |work=Expelled Exposed |publisher=National Center for Science Education }}</ref>) and the race doctrines of [[Nazism]]. Critics, particularly proponents of [[creationism]], have frequently tried to link [[evolution]], [[Charles Darwin]] and social Darwinism with [[racialism]], [[New Imperialism|imperialism]] and [[eugenics]], to support their assertion that social Darwinism became one of the pillars of [[Fascism]] and [[Nazism|Nazi]] ideology, and that the consequences of the application of policies of "[[survival of the fittest]]" by [[Nazi Germany]] eventually created a very strong backlash against the theory.<ref name=hitler-eugenics/> Hitler often refused to intervene in the promotion of officers and staff members, preferring instead to have them fight amongst themselves to force the "stronger" person to prevail - "strength" referring to those social forces void of virtue or principle.<ref>cf. 1997 BBC documentary: "The Nazis: A Warning from History" [http://imdb.com/title/tt0207907/]</ref> The creationist ministry [[Answers in Genesis]] is especially known for some of these claims<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v24/i3/nazi.asp Nazis planned to exterminate Christianity]</ref><ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v22/i1/holocaust.asp The Holocaust and evolution]</ref>. Additionally, this is a position of [[intelligent design]] supporters as well. For example, it is a theme in [[Richard Weikart]]'s work who is a historian at [[California State University, Stanislaus]] and is a senior fellow for the [[Center for Science and Culture]] of the [[Discovery Institute]].<ref name="DI">{{cite news | url=http://www.discovery.org/a/2247 | title=Senior Fellow Richard Weikart responds to Sander Gliboff | publisher=[[Center for Science and Culture]] |date= October 10, 2004 | first=Richard Weikart | last= | accessdate =2008-05-17}}</ref> It is also a main argument in the 2008 movie ''[[Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed]]''. These claims are widely criticized by the academic community.<ref name="Zimmerman">{{cite news | url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/531468 | title=Richard Weikart. From Darwin to Hitler | publisher=[[American Historical Review]] |date= Volume 110, Issue 2, Page 566–567, Apr 2005 | first=[[Andrew Zimmerman]] | last= | accessdate =2007-05-17}}</ref><ref name="Roll-Hansen">{{cite news | url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/501405 | title=Richard Weikart: From Darwin to Hitler | publisher=[[Isis (journal)|Isis]] |date= Volume 96, Issue 4, Page 669–671, Dec 2005 | first=[[Nils Roll-Hansen]] | last= | accessdate =2007-05-17}}</ref> <ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=37981105462766 | title=Review: Richard Weikart, From Darwin to Hitler | publisher=[[H-Net|H-German]] |date= September, 2004 | first=[[Sander Gliboff]] | last= | accessdate =2007-05-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=80951126890820 | title=Review: Richard Weikart, From Darwin to Hitler | publisher=[[H-Net|H-Ideas]] |date= June, 2005 | first=[[Jonathan Judaken]] | last= | accessdate =2007-05-17}}</ref><ref name="TaylorAllen">{{cite news | url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/502761 | title=Book Review of ''From Darwin to Hitler'' | publisher=[[The Journal of Modern History]] |date= (March 2006): 255–257 | first=[[Ann Taylor Allen]] | last= | accessdate =2007-05-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Genocide.cfm | title=Creationists for Genocide | publisher=[[Talk Reason]] |date= 2007 | first=[[Hector Avalos]] | last= | accessdate =2007-05-17}}</ref> The [[Anti-Defamation League]] has rejected such attempts to link Darwin's ideas with Nazi atrocities, and has stated that "Using the Holocaust in order to tarnish those who promote the theory of evolution is outrageous and trivializes the complex factors that led to the mass extermination of European Jewry.".<ref name=hitler-eugenics/> Such criticisms are sometimes applied and misapplied to any other political or scientific theory that resembles social Darwinism, for example criticisms leveled at [[evolutionary psychology]]. Another example is recent scholarship that portrays [[Ernst Haeckel]]'s [[Monist]] League as a mystical progenitor of the [[Völkisch movement]] and, ultimately, of the [[National Socialist German Workers Party|Nazi Party]] of [[Adolf Hitler]]. Scholars opposed to this interpretation, however, have pointed out that the Monists were [[Freethought|freethinkers]] who opposed all forms of [[mysticism]], and that their organizations were immediately banned following the Nazi takeover in 1933 because of their association with a wide variety of progressive causes including [[feminism]], [[pacifism]], [[human rights]], and early [[gay liberation]] movements.<ref>{{cite conference | first=Richard | last=Weikart | title="Evolutionäre Aufklärung"? Zur Geschichte des Monistenbundes | booktitle=Wissenschaft, Politik und Öffentlichkeit: von der Wiener Moderne bis zur Gegenwart | pages=131-48 |date=2002 | location=Wien | publisher=WUV-Universitätsverlag | id=ISBN 3-85114-664-6}}</ref> Similarly, [[capitalism|capitalist economics]], especially laissez-faire economics, is attacked by some socialists by equating it to social Darwinism because it is premised on the idea of natural scarcity, also the starting point of social Darwinism, and because it is often interpreted to involve a "sink or swim" attitude toward economic activity. However, there were few "social Darwinists" after the 1880s who advocated capitalism and ''laissez-faire''. Most of them demanded a strong government that would intervene in the economy or society to weed out inferiors. They did not believe the marketplace could do that. For example, [[Ludwig von Mises]], an advocate of ''[[laissez-faire]]'', argued in his book [[Human Action]] that social Darwinism contradicts the principles of [[liberalism]]. Social Darwinist theory itself does not necessarily engender a political position: some social Darwinists would argue for the inevitability of progress, while others emphasize the potential for the degeneration of humanity, and some even attempt to enroll social Darwinism in a reformist politics. Rather, social Darwinism is an [[eclecticism|eclectic]] set of closely interrelated social theories -- much in the way that [[existentialism]] is not one philosophy but a set of closely interrelated [[philosophical principles]]. Some economic critics of social Darwinism point to [[David Ricardo]]'s [[comparative advantage]] and claim that weaker members of society are valuable even if the stronger members are better at doing everything. However, social Darwinism does not necessarily assert the latter. Comparative advantage relies on the idea that trade and cooperation are more important than pure competitiveness, which might inhibit trade by erecting protective barriers.<includeonly>{{{category|}}}</includeonly> ==References== {{reflist}} ===Primary sources=== *[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=93577330 ''Darwinism: Critical Reviews from [[Dublin Review (Catholic periodical)|Dublin Review]], Edinburgh Review, Quarterly Review'' (1977 edition) reprints 19th century reviews and essays] *[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=57831077 Fiske, John. ''Darwinism and Other Essays'' (1900)] *{{Citation | last = Darwin | first = Charles | author-link =Charles Darwin | year = 1859 | title =[[On the Origin of Species]] by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life | edition =1st | publication-place = London | publisher =John Murray | url =http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F373&viewtype=text&pageseq=1 | accessdate = }} *{{Citation | last = Darwin | first = Charles | author-link =Charles Darwin | year = 1882 | title =[[The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex]] | edition =2nd | publication-place = London | publisher =John Murray | url =http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F955&viewtype=text&pageseq=1 | accessdate = }} ===Secondary sources=== *Bannister, Robert C. ''Social Darwinism: Science and Myth in Anglo-American Social Thought'' (1989) *[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=61860931 Bannister, Robert C. ''Sociology and Scientism: The American Quest for Objectivity, 1880-1940'' (1987)] *Bernardini, J.-M. ''Le darwinisme social en France (1859-1918). Fascination et rejet d'une idéologie'', Paris, CNRS Edition, 1997. *[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=96294585 Boller, Paul F. Jr. ''American Thought in Transition: The Impact of Evolutionary Naturalism, 1865-1900'' (1969)] *Crook, D. Paul. ''Darwinism, War and History : The Debate over the Biology of War from the 'Origin of Species' to the First World War'' (1994) *[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001247998 Crook, Paul. "Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945" ''The Australian Journal of Politics and History'', Vol. 45, 1999] Crook, Paul. "Darwin's Coat-Tails: Essays on Social Darwinism" (Peter Lang, New York, Oxford, 2007) *Dickens, Peter. ''Social Darwinism: Linking Evolutionary Thought to Social Theory'' (Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2000). *Degler, Carl N. ''In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Social Thought'' (1992). *[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98417918 Gossett, Thomas F. ''Race: The History of an Idea in America'' (1999) ch 7] *{{cite book| author=Hawkins, Mike | title=[[Social Darwinism in European and American Thought 1860-1945]]: Nature and Model and Nature as Threat| location=London | publisher=Cambridge University Press| year=1997| id= | isbn=052157434X}} *{{Citation | last = Desmond | first = Adrian | last2 = Moore | first2 = James | author2-link =James Moore (biographer) | year = 1991 | title = Darwin | publication-place = London | publisher =Michael Joseph, Penguin Group | isbn =0-7181-3430-3 }} *[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=107191131 Hodge, Jonathan and Gregory Radick. ''The Cambridge Companion to Darwin'' (2003)] *Hodgson, Geoffrey M. (2004) ‘Social Darwinism in Anglophone Academic Journals: A Contribution to the History of the Term’, Journal of Historical Sociology, 17(4), December, pp. 428-63. *Hofstadter, Richard, ''Social Darwinism in American Thought'' (1955) (originally written in 1930s at a time author was active in Communist party affairs; he later became quite conservative. [http://books.google.com/books?ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=en&id=Ty8aEmWc_ekC&pg=PR19&lpg=PR19&dq=bannister+social+darwinism&prev=http://books.google.com/books%3Fq%3Dbannister%2Bsocial%2Bdarwinism%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a&sig=A6E3BX2UwSDCfSVcE93gEoLl9MM Historians agree that Hofstadter exaggerated the importance of social Darwinism in America.]) *Lyons, Anthony, 'Social Darwinism: an undercurrent in English Education, 1900-1920", PhD thesis, University of Manchester, January 1996. *[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001362323 Jones, Leslie. ''Social Darwinism Revisited'' History Today, Vol. 48, August 1998] *Kaye, Howard L. ''The Social Meaning of Modern Biology: From Social Darwinism to Sociobiology'' (1997). ==See also== *[[Altruism]] *[[Cultural selection theory]] *[[Sociocultural evolution]] *[[Mutation]] *[[Social ecology]] *[[Social implications of the theory of evolution]] *[[Natural philosophy]] *[[George Chatterton-Hill]] ==External links== *[http://library.thinkquest.org/C004367/eh4.shtml Social Darwinism on ThinkQuest] *[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/darwin/nameof/ In the name of Darwin - criticism of social Darwinism] *[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761579584/Social_Darwinism.html Social Darwinism on MSN Encarta] *[http://www.crf-usa.org/bria/bria19_2b.htm Social Darwinism on Constitutional Rights Foundation] {{Darwin}} {{Racism topics|state=collapsed}} [[Category:Sociological theories]] [[Category:Political philosophy]] [[Category:Theories of history]] [[Category:Philosophical terminology]] [[Category:19th century]] [[Category:20th century]] [[Category:Social ethics]] [[Category:Sociological paradigms]] [[ar:داروينية اجتماعية]] [[ca:Darwinisme social]] [[cs:Sociální darwinismus]] [[da:Socialdarwinisme]] [[de:Sozialdarwinismus]] [[es:Darwinismo social]] [[eu:Gizarte-darwinismo]] [[fr:Darwinisme social]] [[ko:사회진화론]] [[it:Darwinismo sociale]] [[he:דרוויניזם חברתי]] [[hu:Szociáldarwinizmus]] [[nl:Sociaal Darwinisme]] [[ja:社会進化論]] [[no:Sosialdarwinisme]] [[nn:Sosialdarwinisme]] [[pl:Darwinizm społeczny]] [[pt:Darwinismo social]] [[ru:Социальный дарвинизм]] [[simple:Social Darwinism]] [[sk:Sociálny darvinizmus]] [[sr:Социјал-дарвинизам]] [[fi:Sosiaalidarvinismi]] [[sv:Socialdarwinism]] [[tr:Sosyal Darwinizm]] [[uk:Соціальний дарвінізм]] [[zh:社会达尔文主义]]