Darwinism and American Society

Darwinism and American Society

Directions: Respond to the four prompts below. The overall assignment must include three to five relevant scholarly sources in support of your content.

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide located in the Student Success Center.

Wikipedia, Ask.com, ehow.com, and other online information sites, encyclopedias, or dictionaries are not considered university academic sources and are NOT TO BE USED.

Briefly explain how each of the following contributed or detracted to the Social Darwinism or eugenics movement in America (20-30 words each)

Count Arthur de Gobineau:

Count Arthur de Gobineau was a French thinker and the author of the “Essai sure l’inegalite des races humaines,” which translates to “Inequality of the human races.” He accommodated the principles of Darwinism and believed that the white “Aryan” was the most superior race, which later the Nazis used to justify their goal of world domination.

Houston Stewart Chamberlain:

Houston Stewart Chamberlain was a supporter of eugenics. Consequently, he became friends with Adolf Hitler, and together, they advocated for the act of selective breeding of the Aryan bloodlines and eugenics.

Charles Darwin:

Charles Robert Darwin proposed the theory of evolution: Darwinism. He used artificial selection to explain the concept of natural selection. His main idea was that traits, especially physical traits, were passed down from parents to children. This theory was initially proposed for the understanding of the animal kingdom, but it was later adapted to express opinions in social structures (O’Connell & Ruse, 2021).

Herbert Spencer:

Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher who promoted the Darwinistic perspective of evolution. He coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” and applied Darwin’s knowledge in the business environment. Further, he explained that the differences in human ability in the economic climate allowed continual economic progress. He argued that the government’s involvement in helping the incapable would have polluted the business world and prevented growth (Schultz, 2011).

William Graham Sumner:

William Graham Sumner believed in Charles Darwin’s theory of Darwinism. Accordingly, he believed in “survival for the fittest,” that inequalities existed between human beings, and that interfering with these inequalities would be unfit (Hofstadter, 1941).

Josiah Strong:

Strong was a religious person, Congregation minister, and reformer in four aspects: spiritual, social, political, and economic. He was also a social philosopher who advocated for the Social Gospel and appreciated science’s findings. According to him, religion and science were not antagonistic; instead, they supplemented each other. Additionally, Strong viewed society as a living organism prone to social interdependence and evolutionary change, which guide its progress (Muller, 1959).

Andrew Carnegie:

Andrew Carnegie was an American proponent of free-market competition and a philanthropist who supported Spencer’s views with great weight. He justified the social inequalities in modern urbanized society, saying that they were necessary for humanity’s progress and that the law of competition, though sometimes hard on individuals, was best for race as it ensured survival for the fittest on every departmental level. However, he also wrote the Gospel of Wealth with an outline of philanthropy where society lived in harmony (Carnegie, 1906).

Lester Frank Ward:

Lester Frank Ward was a botanist, Darwinist, and Neo-Lamarckian sociologist who advocated for women’s rights. He believed in gender equality and was greatly supported by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, an American feminist who supported Darwinism (Davis & Knight, 2004).

 How was Darwinism generally, and eugenics specifically, used to impact America’s immigration policies? (100-200 words)

Darwinism is the theory of survival for the fittest. The United States is a nation of immigrants but has seen negative sentiments throughout its history. Subsequently, these negativities are implicated through resource threats and symbolic threats. Resource threats reflect business competition with immigrants, while symbolic threats reflect cultural disparities, where the host culture feels undermined. Accordingly, social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, and social Darwinism (survival of the fittest) account for these implications concerning immigration (Saud, 2019).

Similarly, eugenics impacted the immigration patterns in the United States. Following Laughlin’s appearance before the US House of Representatives Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, an immigration law, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1924, was enacted, and Laughlin was appointed “expert eugenics agent.” Laughlin claimed that the rising population of “intellectually and morally defective” eastern and southern Europeans polluted the “American” gene pool (“Social Darwinism and Eugenics in America,” n.d.). Consequently, the restriction law stopped the movement of the allegedly “dysgenic” Italian and Eastern European immigrants. Accordingly, the population of these immigrants in the country reduced from 45% to 15% (“Social Darwinism and Eugenics in America,” n.d.).

Explain the three ways in which ‘survival of the fittest’ was applied to society. Provide specific examples. (200-300 words)

Eugenics:

Eugenics takes two forms: positive and negative eugenics (“Social Darwinism and Eugenics in America,” n.d.). Firstly, positive eugenics encouraged good health people to reproduce, create better births, and end certain unwanted genetic disorders. For instance, programs for positive eugenics in the US involved creating “Fitter Family Fairs,” whereby families could compete for prizes at local county fairs. Secondly, negative eugenics was observed when individuals were discouraged from reproducing with other individuals who were deemed unfit for reproduction. In those times, those unsuitable for producing included the poor, the mentally challenged, and the drunken. Additionally, many eugenics supporters assumed that social and behavioral characteristics like poverty were inherited from parents to children.

Social Gospel:

The Social Gospel Movement developed during a time when urbanization and industrialization proliferated (Schultz, 2011). During these times, political and economic mismanagements resulted in a social context filled with social pressure, abuse, and poverty, particularly among the poor and the working class—the movement aimed to address these social issues through the application of Christian principles of social structures. Subsequently, supporters of the Social Gospel believed that the God-fulfilled Kingdom is a society that has eliminated all social evils. Consequently, they focused on addressing social injustices from the eschatological perspective of premillennialism. Additionally, they managed to alleviate these social problems by providing several means that fought against social evil. Therefore, the Social Gospel aligns with the “survival for the fittest” concept as it helped the poor and oppressed survive in society.

Gospel of Wealth:

The Gospel of Wealth is an essay by Andrew Carnegie that outlined philanthropy so that society could live in harmonious relationships. The report relates to the “survival of the fittest” concept as it calls for help for people experiencing poverty. Essentially, Carnegie suggested that it was best if the rich redirected their surplus wealth into society to help out the less fortunate (Carnegie, 1906). Therefore, the gospel of wealth aligns with survival for the fittest as it helps the poor and underprivileged survive in society. 

What do Fundamentalist Christians believe? Why are these beliefs opposed to Darwinism? Use the Keas and Dixon articles to support your answers. (100-200 words)

Fundamentalist Christians are a group of Protestants who believe in one Supreme Being (God), who created all living and non-living things. They argued that the Bible is the true revealed Word of God and is absolutely true in every detail. They believed that the main elements of traditional Christian doctrine should be asserted and upheld. These elements include biblical inerrancy, the Virgin birth, and the reality of miracles. Most supporters of Christian fundamentalism were in an antagonistic relationship with the evolution theory of Darwinism. Accordingly, the evolution theory of Darwinism did not acknowledge the literal truth of Genesis. Instead, it implied that human beings evolved from lower species through random mutations rather than being God’s creation (created in His image and likeness) (Schultz, 2011).

References

Carnegie, A. (1906). the Gospel of Wealth. The North American Review, 183(599), 526–537. Retrieved 10 April 2022, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25105641.

Davis, C., & Knight, D. (2004). Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Her Contemporaries. University of Alabama Press.

Goering, S., & Edward N. Zalta (ed.). (2014). Eugenics. The Stanford Encyclopedia Of Philosophy. Retrieved 10 April 2022, from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/eugenics/.

Hofstadter, R. (1941). William Graham Sumner, Social Darwinist. The New England Quarterly, 14(3), 457. https://doi.org/10.2307/360486

Muller, D. (1959). The Social Philosophy of Josiah Strong: Social Christianity and American Progressivism. Church History, 28(2), 183-201. https://doi.org/10.2307/3161456

O’Connell, J., & Ruse, M. (2021). Social Darwinism. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108879026

Saud, L. (2019). Perceptions of Immigrant Threats: The Role of Social Darwinism. Proquest LLC, (13425915). Retrieved 10 April 2022, from https://www.proquest.com/openview/36c5f386321b697a3dadf3f87424459d/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y.

Schultz, K. (2011). HIST (2nd ed.). Wadsworth Publishing.

Simuț, C. (2021). The Social Gospel Movement. An Overview. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Theologia Reformata Transylvanica, 66(1), 131-152. https://doi.org/10.24193/subbtref.66.1.07

Social Darwinism and Eugenics in America. Uc.edu. Retrieved 10 April 2022, from https://www.uc.edu/content/dam/refresh/cont-ed-62/olli/s21/darwin5-.pdf.

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Assessment Description
Complete the Darwinism and American Society Worksheet. Using resources from the Topic 2 Readings, including your textbook, materials provided by your instructor through class discussion, and materials from the GCU Library Guide for HIS-144 US History Themes, complete the assignment worksheet. Each answer to the questions should be a minimum of 200-300 words and include citations for each question formatted using the APA Style Guide. The overall assignment must consist of a minimum of three relevant scholarly sources in support of your content.

The overall assignment must include three to five relevant scholarly sources in support of your content. Each response should show good writing mechanics, grammar, formatting, and proper citations at the end of each question/answer. Wikipedia, Ask.com, ehow.com, and other online information sites, encyclopedias, or dictionaries are not considered university academic sources and are NOT TO BE USED.

This assignment uses a scoring guide. Please review the scoring guide prior to beginning the work to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.