Acknowledgments
I wishto thankRobertC. Bannister,authorofSocialDarwinism:Scienceand Mythin Anglo-
AmericanSocialThoughtand one of the earliestand mostprominentscholarsto challenge
the prevailinginterpretationsaboutsocialDarwinismandHerbertSpencerwhichRich-
ard HofstadterestablishedinSocialDarwinismin AmericanThought. In the processof
writingthiswork,I cameacrossan oddquotationascribedto HerbertSpencer,andI
suspectedthatthis wasa misattribution.Thenunableto tracethe sourceof thatmysteri-
ous quotation,I contactedDr. Bannisterto ask himif he wasawareof the quotation’s
origin.As explainedin chapter2, Dr. Bannisterprovedimmenselyhelpfulin this regard.
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