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Social Darwinism in American Thought

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5 Reviews
Beacon Press, 1992 - History - 248 pages
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.

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Review: Social Darwinism in American Thought

User Review  - Megan - Goodreads

As a basic documentation of the way evolutionary thought is absorbed and adapted into American thought, it's a nice treatment. Definitely an intellectual history in the style of the time, though ... Read full review

Review: Social Darwinism in American Thought

User Review  - Sean Chick - Goodreads

A true classic. The conclusion is heartbreaking, since circa 2013 social Darwinism has been resurrected and prettied up as libertarianism. Read full review

All 5 reviews »

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References from web pages

JSTOR: Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860-1915.
BOOK REVIEW Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860-1915. By Richard Hofstadter. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944. Pp. viii, 191. ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0022-5037(194501)6%3A1%3C119%3ASDIAT1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J

Late 19th Century
Social Darwinism in American Thought. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944; rev. ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955. ...
home.apu.edu/ ~blamkin/ late_19th_century.htm

ebscohost Connection: Social Darwinism in American Thought.
American Catholic Sociological Review: The article presents information on the book "Social Darwinism in American Thought," by R. Hofstadter. The book is...
connection.ebscohost.com/ content/ article/ 1021276243.html;jsessionid=5A1D6EDC961D57C9DCD4B463785267C2.ehctc1

Richard Hofstadter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
109-124 JSTOR; Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860-1915 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944); 1992 edition with preface by Eric ...
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Richard_Hofstadter

Social Darwinism in American thought by Richard Hofstadter ...
All about Social Darwinism in American thought by Richard Hofstadter. librarything is a cataloging and social networking site for booklovers.
www.librarything.com/ work/ 236634

Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945
Richard Hofstadter's Social Darwinism in American Thought (1944) became the classic formulation of this view, although Hofstadter allowed for later ...
www.questia.com/ PM.qst?a=o& se=gglsc& d=5001247998

Gene Expression: Political fictions & Social Darwinism
The myth that he created social Darwinism is due to Douglas Hofstadter's 1944 book:Social Darwinism in American thought. [Boston: Beacon Press]. ...
scienceblogs.com/ gnxp/ 2008/ 04/ political_fictions.php

Richard Hofstadter: Biography and Much More from Answers.com
His first book, Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860-1915 (1944), was an analysis of how American thinkers attempted to adapt Darwinist ideas to their ...
www.answers.com/ topic/ richard-hofstadter

Columbia American History Online
Richard Hofstadter's book Social Darwinism in American Thought (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944), although outdated, is a classic text ...
caho-test.cc.columbia.edu/ pcp/ 14008.html

Social Darwinism - Biocrawler
Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston: Beacon Press. . Dickens, Peter (2000). Social Darwinism: Linking Evolutionary Thought to Social Theory. ...
www.biocrawler.com/ encyclopedia/ Social_Darwinism

About the author (1992)

DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University from 1959 until the time of his death, Richard Hofstadter was one of the most influential historians in post--World War II America. His political, social, and intellectual histories raised serious questions about assumptions that had long been taken for granted and cast the American experience in an interesting new light. His 1948 work, The American Political Tradition, is an enduring classic study in political history. His 1955 work, The Age of Reform, which still commands respect among both historians and general readers, won him that year's Pulitzer Prize. A measure of Hofstadter's standing in literary and scholarly circles is the honors he received in 1964 for Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963)---Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize of Phi Beta Kappa, and the Sidney Hillman Prize Award. Hofstadter's greatest talent, however, may have been his ability to order complex events and issues and to synthesize from them a rational, constructively critical perspective on American history.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Social Darwinism in American Thought
TitleSocial Darwinism in American Thought
AuthorRichard Hofstadter
Edition2, reprint
PublisherBeacon Press, 1992
ISBN0807055034, 9780807055038
Length248 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / General
Social Science / Sociology / General
  
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