Hunting Down Social Darwinism Will This Canard Go Extinct

Progressivism 125

sives” fromSpencerism“is the Progressivebeliefthatthe state... coulddo betterthan
‘nature’ in the essentialDarwiniantaskof weedingout the unfit.”^204
In short,thoughtheseleft-wingluminariescalledthemselvessociallyprogressive, every
one of theirfavoriteregulationsdid nothingbut impedesocialprogress.Throughoutpart
I, I havearguedthatthe earlytwentiethcentury’s governisteugenicsmovementsin the
USAandU.K.camenot fromSpencerandSumner,but fromgovernistactivists.Still,a
doubtermayproclaimthat this doesnot detractfromhis notionthat AdolfHitler’s eugen-
icismstillcan be tracedbackto Sumneror Spencer.In partII, I willexaminewhether
Hitler’s entiregovernmentalsystemwasa tributeto Spenceriancapitalismor a willful
rejectionof it. We mightconsiderthatHitlerdid not fashionhimselfafterany popular
imagesof whata right-wingsocialDarwinistwassupposedto be. Rather,it maybe that
beforethe Germanpublicthe Führerscapegoatedhis enemies,the Jews,as the actual
capitalisticsocialDarwinists.

NOTES

1. Derber1998,96–97.


2. S. P. Caine1974,11.


3. T. K. McCraw1974,200.


4. R. L. Moore1974,43.


5. T. C. Leonard2009,37, accessedonlineSunday,November6, 2011.


6. Degler1991,42, 47.


7. Hofstadter1959,168–69.


8. T. K. McCraw1974,196–97.


9. R. L. Moore1974,48.


10. Ekirch1974,86, 170.


11. Mowry1958,54.


12. Qtd.by R. Monksand N. Minow1991,4.


13. Chernow1998,341.


14. Acemogluand J. A. Robinson2012,323.


15. Black2003,120; and Degler1991,47–48.


16. M. Ridley1999,290.


17. Degler1991,47–48.


18. LouisD. Brandeisin dissent,Olmsteadv. UnitedStates, 277 U.S.438 (1928),in T. R. Bruceed. 2009,
    accessedonlineSaturday,July25, 2009.


19. “Brandeis,”The AmericanHeritageDictionaryof the EnglishLanguage4th ed. 2006,republishedas
    “Brandeis,” https://web.archive.org/web/20070307162723/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Bran-
    deis,accessedThursday,October1, 2014.


20. Brandeisqtd.in “The ThirdPartyandthe Trusts,”The Nation95, September19, 1912,pp. 253–53.
    Bannister1988,88, broughtthis to my attention.


21. Qtd.by T. K. McCraw1984,102.


22. Qtd.in G. Seldes1960,112.


23. D. W. Root2010,accessedonlineTuesday,September3, 2013.


24. Brandeis2013,47, accessedonlineTuesday,September3, 2013.


25. JusticeDavidJosiahBrewer,opinionof the Court,Mullerv. Oregon, 208 U.S.14 (1908),in http://
    http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0208_0412_ZO.html,in T. R. Bruceed. 2013.


26. Teixeiraand Halpin2010,10, accessedonlineTuesday,September3, 2013.


27. Lombardo2008,158.


28. For an exampleof a governistauthorderidingTaftfor beingtoo muchof a laissez-faireconserva-
    tive,see JamesT. Adams1931,332–33. Herethe authorderidessupportersof free enterpriseas “reaction-
    ary.”


29. J. T. Patterson1972,5, mentionsthat RobertTaftwas WilliamHowardTaft’s son,and J. T. Patterson
    1972,309, 384, mentionsRobertTaft’s reputationfor beingrelativelylaissezfaire.


30. ThatWilliamHowardTaftwasSumner’s studentis mentionedin Lombardo2008,158.J. T. Patter-
    son 1972,33, mentionsRobertTaft beingSumner’s student.


31. Acemogluand J. A. Robinson2012,320–23.


32. Ekirch1974,143.


33. Cannadine2006,220.Chernow2001,tradepaperback,130,alsomentionsTaftinitiatingmore
    antitrustsuitsthanTheodoreRoosevelt.