Social Darwinism in American Thought

Social Darwinism in American Thought PDF Author: Richard Hofstadter
Publisher: Ingram
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Tracing the impact of Darwin on thinkers throughout the gilded Age and the Progressive era, 'Social Darwinism' shows how a politically neutral scientific theory has been adapted with skillful rhetoric to contradictory purposes.

Social Darwinism in American Thought

Social Darwinism in American Thought PDF Author: Richard Hofstadter
Publisher: Ingram
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Tracing the impact of Darwin on thinkers throughout the gilded Age and the Progressive era, 'Social Darwinism' shows how a politically neutral scientific theory has been adapted with skillful rhetoric to contradictory purposes.

Social Darwinism in American Thought

Social Darwinism in American Thought PDF Author: Richard Hofstadter
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 9780807055038
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Social Darwinism in American Thought portrays the overall influence of Darwin on American social theory and the notable battle waged among thinkers over the implications of evolutionary theory for social thought and political action. Theorists such as Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner adopted the idea of the struggle for existence as justification for the evils as well as the benefits of laissez-faire modern industrial society. Others such as William James and John Dewey argued that human planning was needed to direct social development and improve upon the natural order. Hofstadter's classic study of the ramifications of Darwinism is a major analysis of the social philosophies that animated intellectual movements of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.

Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860-1915

Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860-1915 PDF Author: Richard Hofstadter
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781512812350
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Social Darwinism in American Thought examines the overall influence of Darwin on American social theory and the notable battle waged among thinkers over the implications of evolutionary theory for social thought and political action. Theorists such as Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner adopted the idea of the struggle for existence as justification for the evils--as well as the benefits--of laissez-faire modern industrial society. Others, such as William James and John Dewey, argued that human planning was needed to direct social development and improve on the natural order. Hofstadter's classic study of the ramifications of Darwinism is a major analysis of the social philosophies that animated intellectual movements of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era.

Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945

Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945 PDF Author: Mike Hawkins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521574341
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
An analysis of the ideological influence of Social Darwinists in Europe and America.

Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism PDF Author: Robert Bannister
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN: 143990605X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Attempts to assess the role played by Darwinian ideas in the writings of English-speaking social theorists.

The Book That Changed America

The Book That Changed America PDF Author: Randall Fuller
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143130099
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
A compelling portrait of a unique moment in American history when the ideas of Charles Darwin reshaped American notions about nature, religion, science and race “A lively and informative history.” – The New York Times Book Review Throughout its history America has been torn in two by debates over ideals and beliefs. Randall Fuller takes us back to one of those turning points, in 1860, with the story of the influence of Charles Darwin’s just-published On the Origin of Species on five American intellectuals, including Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, the child welfare reformer Charles Loring Brace, and the abolitionist Franklin Sanborn. Each of these figures seized on the book’s assertion of a common ancestry for all creatures as a powerful argument against slavery, one that helped provide scientific credibility to the cause of abolition. Darwin’s depiction of constant struggle and endless competition described America on the brink of civil war. But some had difficulty aligning the new theory to their religious convictions and their faith in a higher power. Thoreau, perhaps the most profoundly affected all, absorbed Darwin’s views into his mysterious final work on species migration and the interconnectedness of all living things. Creating a rich tableau of nineteenth-century American intellectual culture, as well as providing a fascinating biography of perhaps the single most important idea of that time, The Book That Changed America is also an account of issues and concerns still with us today, including racism and the enduring conflict between science and religion.

Social Darwinism in American Thought

Social Darwinism in American Thought PDF Author: Richard Hofstadter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Evolution
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description


From Darwin to Hitler

From Darwin to Hitler PDF Author: R. Weikart
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137109866
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
In this work, Richard Weikart explains the revolutionary impact Darwinism had on ethics and morality. He demonstrates that many leading Darwinian biologists and social thinkers in Germany believed that Darwinism overturned traditional Judeo-Christian and Enlightenment ethics, especially the view that human life is sacred. Many of these thinkers supported moral relativism, yet simultaneously exalted evolutionary 'fitness' (especially intelligence and health) to the highest arbiter of morality. Darwinism played a key role in the rise not only of eugenics, but also euthanasia, infanticide, abortion and racial extermination. This was especially important in Germany, since Hitler built his view of ethics on Darwinian principles, not on nihilism.

Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism PDF Author: Jeffrey O'Connell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781108793803
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 75

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Book Description
This Element is a philosophical history of Social Darwinism. It begins by discussing the meaning of the term, moving then to its origins, paying particular attention to whether it is Charles Darwin or Herbert Spencer who is the true father of the idea. It gives an exposition of early thinking on the subject, covering Darwin and Spencer themselves and then on to Social Darwinism as found in American thought, with special emphasis on Andrew Carnegie, and Germany with special emphasis on Friedrich von Bernhardi. Attention is also paid to outliers, notably the Englishman Alfred Russel Wallace, the Russian Peter Kropotkin, and the German Friedrich Nietzsche. From here we move into the twentieth century looking at Adolf Hitler - hardly a regular Social Darwinian given he did not believe in evolution - and in the Anglophone world, Julian Huxley and Edward O. Wilson, who reflected the concerns of their society.

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life PDF Author: Richard Hofstadter
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307809676
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
Winner of the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction Anti-Intellectualism in American Life is a book which throws light on many features of the American character. Its concern is not merely to portray the scorners of intellect in American life, but to say something about what the intellectual is, and can be, as a force in a democratic society. "As Mr. Hofstadter unfolds the fascinating story, it is no crude battle of eggheads and fatheads. It is a rich, complex, shifting picture of the life of the mind in a society dominated by the ideal of practical success." —Robert Peel in the Christian Science Monitor