Editing Social Darwinism (section)

===United States===
Within American society, ideas of social Darwinism reached their greatest prominence during the [[Gilded Age]]. Some argue that the rationale of the late 19th-century "[[captains of industry]]" such as [[John D. Rockefeller]] (1839–1937) and [[Andrew Carnegie]] (1835–1919) owed much to social Darwinism,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title= BRIA 19 2 b Social Darwinism and American Laissez-faire Capitalism|url= https://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-19-2-b-social-darwinism-and-american-laissez-faire-capitalism.html|access-date= 27 June 2020|website= Constitutional Rights Foundation | quote = Captains of industry like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie made fortunes. They also preached "survival of the fittest" in business. }}</ref> and that monopolists of this type applied Darwin's concept of [[natural selection]] to explain corporate dominance in their respective fields and thus to justify their exorbitant accumulations of success and social advancement.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last= Reich |first= Robert|date=20 November 2005|title=The Two Darwinisms|url= https://prospect.org/api/content/90c0b968-51b7-5d34-b17c-4e0cfb8296d7/|access-date=27 June 2020|website=The American Prospect|language=en-us}}</ref> Rockefeller, for example, proclaimed: "The growth of a large [[company|business]] is merely a survival of the fittest{{nbsp}}... the working out of a law of nature and a law of God."<ref>{{Cite web|last= Felix|first= Elving |title= Research Guides: John D. Rockefeller: Topics in Chronicling America: Introduction|url=https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-john-rockefeller |access-date=27 June 2020|website=guides.loc.gov|language=en}}</ref> [[Robert Bork]] (1927–2012) backed this notion of inherent characteristics as the sole determinant of survival in the business-operations context when he said: "In America, the rich are overwhelmingly people—entrepreneurs, small-business men, corporate executives, doctors, lawyers, etc.—who have gained their higher incomes through intelligence, imagination, and hard work."<ref>{{Cite book|last= Reich|first= Robert B.|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wCcuUX4pYs0C&q=the+rich%27+are+overwhelmingly+people+--+entrepreneurs%2C+small-business+men%2C+corporate+executives%2C+doctors%2C+lawyers%2C+etc.+--+who+have+gained+their+higher+incomes+through+intelligence%2C+imagination%2C+and+hard+work.&pg=PA118|title= Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America|date= 2005|publisher= Vintage Books|isbn= 978-1400076604|language= en}}</ref> Moreover, [[William Graham Sumner]] (1840–1910) lauded this same cohort of magnates, and further extended the theory of "corporate Darwinism". Sumner argued that societal progress depended on the "fittest families" passing down wealth and genetic traits to their offspring, thus allegedly creating a lineage of superior citizens.<ref name=":1" /> However, contemporary social scientists reject such claims and have understood that economic status is largely a result of other factors.<ref>{{Cite web|last= Reich |first= Robert | author-link1 = Robert Reich |date=20 November 2005|title= The Two Darwinisms|url= https://prospect.org/api/content/90c0b968-51b7-5d34-b17c-4e0cfb8296d7/|access-date= 30 September 2021|website= The American Prospect|language= en-us | quote = Scientists who are legitimized by peer review and published research are unanimous in their view that evolution is a fact, not a theory. Social Darwinism, meanwhile, is hogwash. Social scientists have long understood that one's economic status in society is not a function of one's moral worth. It depends largely on the economic status of one's parents, the models of success available while growing up, and educational opportunities along the way.}}</ref>

In 1883 Sumner published a highly-influential pamphlet entitled "What Social Classes Owe to Each Other", in which he insisted that the [[social class]]es owe each other nothing, synthesizing Darwin's findings with [[free enterprise|free-enterprise]] capitalism for his justification.{{citation needed|date= June 2012}} According to Sumner, those who feel an obligation to provide assistance to those unequipped or under-equipped to compete for resources, will lead to a country in which the weak and inferior are encouraged to breed more like themselves, eventually dragging the country down. Sumner also believed that the best equipped to win the struggle for existence was the [[American businessman]], and concluded that taxes and regulations serve as dangers to his survival. This pamphlet makes no mention of Darwinism, and only refers to Darwin in a statement on the meaning of liberty, that "There never has been any man, from the primitive barbarian up to a [[Alexander von Humboldt|Humboldt]] or a Darwin, who could do as he had a mind to."<ref>{{Cite book|url= https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18603/18603-h/18603-h.htm|title= The Project Gutenberg eBook of What Social Classes Owe To Each Other, by William Graham Sumner.|date=16 June 2006|via= www.gutenberg.org|access-date=15 April 2018}}</ref>

Sumner never fully embraced Darwinian ideas, and some contemporary historians do not believe that Sumner ever actually believed in social Darwinism.<ref>"<cite>A careful reading of the theories of Sumner and Spencer exonerates them from the century-old charge of social Darwinism in the strict sense of the word. They did not themselves advocate the application of Darwin's theory of natural selection.</cite>" [https://books.google.com/books?id=7BJUIOnC534C&dq=bannister+social+darwinism&pg=PA33 The Social Meaning of Modern Biology: From Social Darwinism to Sociobiology]</ref> The great majority of American businessmen rejected the anti-philanthropic implications of Sumner's theory. Instead they gave millions to build schools, colleges, hospitals, art institutes, parks and many other institutions. [[Andrew Carnegie]], who admired Spencer, was the leading philanthropist in the world in the period from 1890 to 1920, and a major [[leader]] against [[imperialism]] and warfare.<ref>"At least a part—and sometimes a generous part" of the great fortunes went back to the community through many kinds of philanthropic endeavor, says {{cite book |first=Robert H. |last=Bremner |title=American Philanthropy |edition=2nd |year=1988 |isbn=978-0226073248 |page=86 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xRIodAUj1-wC&pg=PA86 }}</ref> For these and other reasons (such as the general lack of interest in academic pursuits most Gilded Age barons displayed) other writers, such as [[Irvin G. Wyllie]] and [[Thomas C. Leonard]], argue that businessmen in the Gilded Age in fact displayed little support for the ideas of social Darwinism.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wyllie |first1=Irvin G. |title=Social Darwinism and the Businessman |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |date=1959 |volume=103 |issue=5 |pages=629–635 |jstor=985421 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/985421 |access-date=14 May 2024 |issn=0003-049X}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Leonard |first1=Thomas C. |title=Origins of the myth of social Darwinism: The ambiguous legacy of Richard Hofstadter's Social Darwinism in American Thought |journal=Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization |date=July 2009 |volume=71 |issue=1 |pages=37–51 |doi=10.1016/j.jebo.2007.11.004 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167268109000584 |access-date=14 May 2024}}</ref>

The Englishman [[H. G. Wells]] (1866–1946) was heavily influenced by Darwinist thought, but reacted against social Darwinism.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Page
 | first1 = Michael R.
 | year = 2012
 | chapter = 'Dim Outlines on a Desolate Beach': H.G. Wells
 | title = The Literary Imagination from Erasmus Darwin to H.G. Wells: Science, Evolution, and Ecology
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WYC1CwAAQBAJ
 | location = London
 | publisher = Routledge
 | publication-date = 2016
 | page = 162
 | isbn = 978-1317025276
 | access-date = 30 September 2021
 | quote = The Traveller's conjectures allow Wells to make a startling critique of social Darwinism [...] and to suggest an alternative evolutionary trajectory that moves beyond the desire for utopia: in the end, human evolution will reverse itself and witness an inevitable decline; progress itself must inevitably result in degeneration.
}}
</ref> American novelist [[Jack London]] (1876–1916) wrote stories of survival that incorporated his views on social Darwinism.<ref>"<cite>Borrowing from Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, social Darwinists believed that societies, as do organisms evolve over time. Nature then determined that the strong survive and the weak perish. In Jack London's case, he thought that certain favored races were destined for survival, mainly those that could preserve themselves while supplanting others, as in the case of the White race.</cite>" [http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Essays/philosophy.html The philosophy of Jack London] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051027154902/http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Essays/philosophy.html |date=27 October 2005 }}</ref> American film-director [[Stanley Kubrick]] (1928–1999) has been described as "just an old-fashioned social Darwinist".<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1=Herr |first1=Michael |title=Kubrick |publisher=Grove Press |isbn=978-0802138187
 | page=[https://archive.org/details/kubrick00herr/page/11 11]
 | url=https://archive.org/details/kubrick00herr |url-access=registration
 | access-date=20 February 2016|year=2000
 | quote =  He was just an old-fashioned social Darwinist (seemingly) [...].
}}</ref>

On the basis of U.S. theory and practice, '''commercial Darwinism''' operates in [[Market (economics)|market]]s worldwide, pitting [[corporation]] against corporation in struggles for survival.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Vengrow
 | first1 = Jeffrey
 | last2 = Voehl
 | first2 = Frank
 | chapter = Value Stream Quality System
 | editor1-last = Stein
 | editor1-first = Martin
 | editor2-last = Voehl
 | editor2-first = Frank
 | title = Macrologistics Management: A Catalyst for Organizational Change
 | date =  2020
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=OqD5DwAAQBAJ
 | edition = reprint
 | publisher = CRC Press
 | page =
 | isbn = 978-1000162240
 | access-date = 30 September 2021
 | quote = In the global marketplace, commercial Darwinism is alive and well. Survival of the fittest in this sense has little to do with genetics, but it has everything to do with developing a competitive advantage. [...] Survival is often associated with adaptation and change.
}}
</ref>