Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

This was a philosophical approach to society and government derived from theories of natural selection, as popularized in Britain by Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species (1859) and extended to modern civilization by Herbert Spencer's writings. It elevated the struggle for survival to the level of a natural law, which produced long-term good for the human race and progress. As applied to political issues, it exerted a profoundly conservative disinclination to curb abuses of economic power by trusts or to alleviate rising levels of poverty by either government programs or private efforts. During the P rogressive E ra , social darwinism became increasingly discredited by competing viewpoints, especially the pragmatism of William J ames and the S ocial G ospel. ... log in or subscribe to read full text