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Pramsu Subedi

Steven Ridgway

History

27 March 2023

Social Darwinism in American Thought

Richard Hofstadter's book, Social Darwinism in American Thought, explores the impact

of Social Darwinism on American society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Throughout the book, Hofstadter analyzes key figures and ideas of Social Darwinism, such as

Herbert Spencer, Lester Ward, and William Graham Sumner. The author traces the concept of

Social Darwinism throughout history and its effects on American thoughts and ideas.

Hofstadter's thesis statement in the book is "The subject of this book is the effects of Darwin's

work upon Social thinking in America."(Hofstadter,4). The book is a historiography that goes

through the evolution of Social Darwinism and its role in American society.

Hofstadter introduces the concept of Social Darwinism, derived from Charles Darwin's

theory of evolution and natural selection. Social Darwinism applies these ideas to society and

states that individuals and groups are people who are subjected to the same ideas of survival of

the fittest that animals are. He then talks about Herbert Spencer, a key figure in the book, who

popularized the idea of "survival of the fittest" and applied it to various aspects of society.

(Hofstedtor,6)He explains how Spencer's ideas became popular in America, especially among

business elites who used them to justify their power and wealth. Many Americans saw Spencer's

philosophy as a scientific basis for individualism, and minimal government intervention. The

author discusses the initial pushback against Darwinism from religious leaders and the scientific
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community before detailing how it eventually became accepted in American society. Hofstadter

examines William Graham Sumner, a Yale University professor who used Social Darwinist ideas

to oppose government intervention in the economy and Social welfare programs.

(Hofstadter,51)Sumner believed in individual freedom and that the government should not

interfere with natural selection. Hofstadter also examines Lester Ward, a sociologist who

believed in the potential for deliberate human intervention to improve society. Ward argued for

education and Social reform and supported government intervention in the economy and Social

welfare programs. (Hofstadter,68)Hofstadter shows how Ward's ideas provided an alternative

vision for Social and economic advancement.

Hofstedtor then discusses The dissenters, a group of intellectuals who opposed Social

Darwinism, which is also explored in the book. These dissenters, including Lester Frank Ward

and Thorstein Veblen, offered alternative visions of politics, society, and economics that argued

against Social Darwinism and called for government intervention. (Hofstadter,106)This

opposition ultimately led to the formation of the Progressive movement, which sought to reform

America's political, Social, and economic systems. Another counter trend discussed in the book

is pragmatism Pragmatism is the idea that assesses the truth of the meaning of theories or beliefs

in terms of the success of their practicality. It emphasizes practical consequences and

experimentation as well as the utility of truth when dealing with particular problems.

(Hofstadter,123)Pragmatism took some of the “unrealistic” ideas of Social Darwinism and

warped them to fit society better. Hofstadter claims that pragmatism was a major shift in

American thought. It moved away from the rigid, deterministic framework of Social Darwinism

to a more flexible, adaptive understanding of human society and knowledge.

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Now Hostedotor mentions the Trends in Social theory throughout this time period. He

mentions the decline of Social Darwinism and the emergence of theories like pragmatism and

people like the dissenters. He also discusses other intellectuals and their ideas on American

culture.

Hofstedor now mentions Social Darwinism's impact on racism and imperialism. Social

Darwinism had started to become justification for racism and imperialistic ideas.(Hofstadter,170

)Social Darwinism advocates argued that certain races, especially white people, have had greater

success because of their superior biological traits. This belief in racial superiority was used as a

justification for discriminatory policies and practices, such as segregation and denial of voting

rights to other whites which caused major issues in America. Social Darwinism was also used as

justification for imperialism. Social Darwinists believed that nations should compete similarly to

how animals compete in the animal kingdom. This resulted in the natural and inevitable

expansion of powerful countries, such as the United States, over smaller ones. This thought

process was used to justify the expansionist policies of the United States and the subjugation of

other cultures.

Finally, Hofstadter concludes the book by summarizing all of his main points throughout

it. He argued that Social Darwinism had influenced American society and led to many changes.

Hofstadter reiterates the importance of Social Darwinism and Herbert Spencer's ideas during this

period. The idea of "survival-of-the-fittest" was a symbol of American values such as

individualism, competition, and little government intervention. Social Darwinism was used as a

scientific basis to justify laissez-faire capitalism and racism. Hofstadter discusses the critics of
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the idea and their logical but yet incorrect reasoning. He also mentions how the idea is losing

popularity in the early 1900s due to the progressive movement

Hofstedators argument in the book was that Social Darwinism was a potent source that

shaped American culture and economics through the country's growth. Social Darwinism

changed how Americans thought and provided justification for laissez-faire capitalism and

imperialism. He supported this idea by stringing along the history of Darwinism and how it

transformed into Social Darwinism in American culture. In his argument, he mentioned critics

and the downfalls of Social Darwinism and talked about it from all angles. Hosftertor mentioned

key figures like Spencer, Ward, and Sumner who changed Social Darwinism in America. He also

mentions key topics like racism, imperialism, and economics such topics that Social Darwinism

had an influence on. By using all this information he proved his thesis that Social Darwinism

has affected American thinking. Hofsteddors argument was very difficult to follow throughout

the entire book. The style of writing he uses is very hard to comprehend and has to be re-read

multiple times to make sense. A large amount of detail he uses makes it easy to forget the

overarching themes of the chapter. The lack of headers in the text and poor formatting led to the

reader becoming easily lost in the text as well. Hofsteder could make his work more

understandable by using more formatting in his writing and being less wordy. His argument was

very constant throughout the book but it was hard to follow due to his old writing style. A way

that this book could be improved would be to rewrite and update it in a way that holds its

historical integrity but also conveys the points of the book in an easier way to understand.

There were similar topics that were discussed in both the book by Hofstedor and the

textbook. The author mentions lots of key ideas and people that were prevalent during that time
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period and accounts of them exist in both the book and the textbook. Social Darwinism is a

present idea throughout most of the textbook. The first unit of the textbook introduces Social

Darwinism and its significance during that time period. The textbook mentions Herbert Spencer

as being the man that applied Social Darwinism to society. It mentions his ideas of survival of

the fittest and how Spencer was responsible for the creation and application of those ideas in

society and businessmen. (Unit 1,22) The textbook gives an unbiased view of Spencer and states

what he did and how it contributed to American society. The book however describes Spencer in

a different light Hofstadter says

Although its influence far outstripped its merits, the Spencerian system serves students of
the American mind as a fossil specimen from which the intellectual body of the period
may be reconstructed. Oliver Wendell Holmes hardly exaggerated when he expressed his
doubt that “ any writer of English except Darwin has done so much to affect our whole
way of thinking about the universe(Hofstadter,32)
The purpose of this statement is to emphasize the impact of Spencer's ideas. He compares

Spencer's ideas and says they are on the same level as Charles Darwin's. I believe that this notion

he has is incorrect due to the fact that Social Darwinism quickly became unpopular going into

the 1900s. Arguing that Spencer is as brilliant as Darwin for coming up with Evolution shows

the bias that Hofstadter had in writing his book, the groundbreaking scientific changes that came

with the theory of evolution cannot be compared to a Social ideology that faded away after 50

years.

Another person that is similar in both the book and the textbook is William Graham

Sumner. Hofstadter goes into detail about Sumner and his thoughts and beliefs regarding Social

Darwinism. In the book, he goes through Sumners's life and his position at Yale regarding Social
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Darwinism. (Sumner,51) The book goes through Summers' upbringing and discusses his various

ideas that had become popular during that time. Sumner was an advocate for Laissez-Faire

capitalism and he preached these ideas at Yale and through newspapers.(Sumner,54)

Laissez-Faire is the idea that the government should not interfere with the economy whatsoever.

This idea was favored by business elites since they could use it to defend their extraordinary

wealth and power. The textbook also mentions the same ideas as the book regarding Sumner.

The textbook discusses a pamphlet published by Sumner titled What the Social classes owe each

other. He combined Darwin's ideas with free-enterprise capitalism to support his view. Sumner

believed that assisting those less equipped for survival would lead to a weaker society, as it

would encourage the reproduction of inferior individuals. He considered American businessmen

to be the fittest for survival and claimed that taxes and regulations threatened their success

(Bentz,37). The ideas regarding William Graham Sumner in the book and the textbook are very

similar. There were no discrepancies between the accounts and the book and textbook offered the

same point of view in this situation.

One last similar topic in the book and the textbook is Social Darwinism’s impact on

racism and imperialism. The book has a chapter that discusses how Social Darwinism was used

to see other races as inferior since they did not have the talent that white men did to become

successful. Social Darwinism, therefore, was used to justify imperialism since the countries

were less than America in a metaphorical animal kingdom. The book discusses this topic in

depth in chapter 9 and has the quote."In the decades after 1885, Anglo-Saxonism, belligerent or

pacific, was the dominant abstract rationale of American imperialism."."(Hofstadter,172) The

quote is saying that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the belief in the superiority of the
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Anglo-Saxon race was a significant factor driving the United States' imperialistic actions.

"'Belligerent or pacific' refers to the different ways America justified its imperialism, using both

peaceful and aggressive tactics." This quote is trying to develop the idea that Social Darwinism

and the racist ideas that came from it had a major influence on imperialism.

The textbook however does not emphasize Social Darwinism's impact on imperialism

and racism so much. Instead of saying that Social Darwinism was the only reason for many

things like Puerto Rico and the Philippines. The textbook offers a narrative that Social

Darwinism was used to build off of ideas that already were contributing to imperialism. The

textbook says that Social Darwinism only built off of existing ideas like manifest destiny that

were already being used for justification. (Adams,3) While the book points to Social Darwinism

being the main reason for imperialism, the textbook shows that many other things also

influenced imperialism. The book provided a different more zoomed-out perspective about

Social Darwinism regarding imperialism.

Hofstadter's thesis statement for the book was "The subject of this book is the effects of

Darwin's work upon Social thinking in America."(Hofstadter,4) Hofsteder proves his thesis by

going through the history and development of Social Darwinism. Although he does prove this

thesis the ideas inside the book are very hard to follow due to the overwhelming amount of

strenuous vocabulary and excess information that he uses. An example of this in the text would

be in chapter five when the author discusses different perspectives on Darwin's implications

regarding ethics and politics. He writes “Perhaps as a salve for his acute sensitivity about his

humble origins, he developed a fondness for pompous Latin and Greek derivatives and sprinkled

his sociology with terms like “The doctrines of the “ scientific party ” were similar to those of
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the comfortable set whose Social prejudices William Dean Howells so coldly examined in A

Traveler from Altruria (1891)”(Hofstadter,89) Sentences like these can be found throughout the

book and can lead to confusion for the reader.

One other criticism that I have is the exaggeration of Social Darwinism's impact

throughout the book. Hofstedor makes it seem as though Social Darwinism was a main influence

on everything in American society when it might not have been. A valid argument is that

economic and other factors could have been far more important than Social Darwinism in the

country. In chapter 9 the author discusses Social Darwinism and its impact on imperialism. He

makes it seem that Social Darwinism was a major reason for imperialization and does not regard

other factors. A major factor that influenced imperialism that is overlooked in the book is

economics. Since the creation of America, economics has played a key role in shaping the

country and making decisions. An example of the economics driving imperialism would be

Alaska and Hawaii where Social Darwinism had little influence. “The negotiations concluded

after an all-night session with the signing of the treaty at 04:00 on March 30, 1867, with the

purchase price set at $7.2 million ($123 million in 2010), or about 2 cents per acre ($4.74/km2).

The U.S. federal government earned a positive financial return on the purchase of Alaska. Tax

revenue, minerals, timber, and fur extracted from the territory more than covered the purchase

cost.”(Adams,16) This decision for imperialism and expansion did not involve Social Darwinism

at all. As the quote stated the only reason was for monetary gain and did not regard Social

Darwinism. Hawaii also was a purely economic decision even though the indigenous people

there would have been seen as inferior due to Social Darwinism. On page 19 of the textbook,

Adams writes “Americans acquired a true foothold in Hawaii as a result of the SUGAR TRADE.
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The United States government provided generous terms to Hawaiian sugar growers, and after the

Civil War, profits began to swell.”(Adams,9) This situation also shows how America was

focused on economics and that the country disregarded Social Darwinism in favor of economic

gain. These 2 examples show how Hofstedtor exaggerates the impact of Social Darwinism in

America, he fails to mention other factors like economics that could have played a big role in

things such as imperialism. Hofstedors argument throughout the book was fairly valid and he

proved his thesis in the book.

Richard Hofstadter's book, "Social Darwinism in American Thought," provides an

exploration of the impact of Social Darwinism on American society during the late 19th and

early 20th centuries. The book covers key figures, such as Herbert Spencer, Lester Ward, and

William Graham Sumner, and their roles in shaping American culture and economics through the

lens of Social Darwinism. Hofstadter's argument that Social Darwinism was a potent source of

influence in America is well-supported, although his writing style can be difficult to follow, and

he sometimes overstates the impact of Social Darwinism while downplaying other contributing

factors, such as economics. The book effectively demonstrates how Social Darwinism provided a

rationale for laissez-faire capitalism, racism, and imperialism, while also showing the rise of

dissenting voices and alternative theories, like pragmatism. It is important to recognize, however,

that the impact of Social Darwinism was not as all-encompassing as Hofstadter suggests, with

other factors playing significant roles in shaping American society. Overall though "Social

Darwinism in American Thought" remains an important work that sheds light on the

development of American thought and ideas during a critical period in the nation's history.
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Works Cited

Jacob Betz et al., “Life in Industrial America,” David Hochfelder, ed., in The American

Yawp, Joseph Locke and Ben Wright, eds, last modified August 1, 2016,

http://www.AmericanYawp.com.

“Unit 1 Captains of industry.”

Ellen Adams et al., “American Empire,” Ellen Adams and Amy Kohout, eds., in The

American Yawp, Joseph Locke and Ben Wright, eds., last modified August 1, 2016,

http://www.AmericanYawp

Hofstadter, R. (1973). Social Darwinism in American thought. Beacon Pr.