ENGLISH

Social Darwinism in American Thought

By Richard Hofstadter

Book information

Publisher
Beacon Press
Year
1992
ISBN
0807055034, 0807054615, 0807600792, 9780807600795, 9780807055038, 9780807054611
LCC
HM22.U5 H6 1992
Open Library ID
OL1563926M
Language
english
Format
DJVU
Filesize
4 MB (3992073 bytes)
Edition
Revised
Pages
252\252
DPI
600
Orientation
yes
Scanned
yes
Time added
2010-05-31 15:29:46

Description

I was blown away by this book when I first read it, back in the 1970s. And I give it three stars because it did introduce me to many of the ideas and thinkers Hofstadter highlights.

But I can't give it more than that. Hofstadter overstates the significance of social Darwinism. It wasn't the whole of the case for laissez-faire economics. After all, David Ricardo made that case well before Darwin saw any finches on any islands. And Ricardo's disciple, Harriet Martineau, was popularizing and idealizing the free-market case in the 1830s, still long before Darwin or Spencer or the rest of this lot.

In the US, the arguments of classical economists combined with the old Puritan ethos to gain force. One interpretation of Darwinism strengthened such thoughts, but RH takes that out of context.

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