Hunting Down Social Darwinism Will This Canard Go Extinct

The Camouflagingof Eugenicistsas Eugenicism’s Opponents 99

poorparentsand wereresponsiblefor manyacts of crueltyaccordingto the NSPCC,” the
UnitedKingdom’s NationalSocietyfor the Preventionof Crueltyto Children.^147
Thereare but a few socialistswhomRichardHofstadteradmitsare anti-pacifisteugen-
icists.Amongthemis anothernovelist,JackLondon(1876–1916).^148 Hofstadterquotesa
telling 1904 articlein whichJackLondoncheersthatimpendingmilitaryconflictswill be
basedon geneticancestry.“The possibilityof raceadventurehas not passedaway.We are
in the midstof our own.TheSlavis just girdinghimselfup to begin.Whymaynot the
yellowandbrownstartout on an adventureas tremendousas our ownandmorestrik-
inglyunique?”^149 Curiously—andconspicuously... andconveniently... —Hofstadter
doesnot botherto disclosethatJackwasenthusedenoughaboutsocialismto foundthe
IntercollegiateSocialistSocietyin 1905,^150 but a yearsubsequentto his call for racewar.
Andamongthe membersof the politicalLeft,the earlytwentieth-century’s partisans
of state-supportedeugenicswerenot limitedto socialists.Throughoutthe firsthalf of the
1900s,state-enforcedeugenicshada placein the heartof Americanswhowouldhave
resentedbeingcalledsocialists—progressives, suchas TheodoreRoosevelt,LouisD.
Brandeis,and the initialproponentsof federalminimumwagelegislation.

NOTES

1. Hofstadter1992,34.


2. R. H. Gabriel1956,248.


3. For characterizationsof HerbertSpencerin sucha way,see Degler 1991 ix, 11–15; Ekirch1974,
   23–24, 209–210,219;Hofstadter1959,31–50, 176,198–99, 202;Mowry1958,17; andRavitch2000,27, 76.
   The castigationof Sumneras a socialDarwinistis in Ekirch1974,22–24; Hofstadter1959,51–66; and in R.
   L. Moore1974,41–42. To see bothSpencerand Sumnerbe criticizedas socialDarwinistsat the exactsame
   time,see Ekirch1974,23–24.


4. Degler1991,20–1, 110; Hofstadter1959,68, 70–76, 79–82, 84; Mowry1958,21; Ravitch2000,28–9, 33.


5. Hofstadter1959,83.


6. Eric Fonerin the Introductionto the 1992editionofSDAT, in Hofstadter1992,xvi.


7. P. Maieret al. 2003,621–22.


8. Ravitch2000,27.


9. Ravitch2000,27, citingCommager1967,xxii.


10. Hofstadter1959,68, 71, 78–79, 81.


11. Ekirch1974,22–24.


12. R. L. Moore1974,41.


13. Mowry1959,20–21, 50.


14. Garratyed. 1968,237.


15. S. Blumenthal1986,89–90.


16. B. Lindsey2007,53–54.


17. Degler1991,21–22, 145.


18. Commager1950,206. B. Folsom2008,8, pointsout the unsurprisingfact that Commageralsowrote
    a hagiographyfor FranklinD. Roosevelt.


19. Commager1950,202, 208, 217, 225.


20. Commagered. 19642d ed., 337.


21. Commager1950,206, 208-09,212–13, 215–17.


22. The quotationand informationcomefromR. H. Gabriel1956,337.


23. Hofstadter1959,82–83.


24. Bannister1988,126.


25. Kariered. 1975,140, 148, 190, 194.


26. Thatwas originallyin LesterFrankWard,Glimpsesof the Cosmosvol. 4, originallypublishedin 1891,
    p. 295,andit wasqtd.by Kariered. 1975,194–95. Thedefinitionof “stirp” I providedin the brackets
    comesfrom“Stirp,”RandomHouseUnabridgedDictionary2006,(NewYork,NewYork:RandomHouse,
    2006),republishedin Dictionary.Com,http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/stirp,accessedWednes-
    day,May2, 2007.


27. He arguesas muchin L. F. Ward1913,738. Kariered. 1975,195, broughtthis to my attention.


28. L. F. Ward1913,746–47.


29. Ekirch1974,23.


30. Mowry1958,50.