TY - JOUR
T1 - Social Darwinism in Anglophone Academic Journals: A Contribution to the History of the Term
AU - Hodgson, G.
PY - 2004
Y1 - 2004
N2 - This essay is a partial history of the term ‘Social Darwinism’. Using large electronic databases, it is shown that the use of the term in leading Anglophone academic journals was rare up to the 1940s. Citations of the term were generally disapproving of the racist or imperialist ideologies with which it was associated. Neither Herbert Spencer nor William Graham Sumner were described as Social Darwinists in this early literature. Talcott Parsons (1932, 1934, 1937) extended the meaning of the term to describe any extensive use of ideas from biology in the social sciences. Subsequently, Richard Hofstadter (1944) gave the use of the term a huge boost, in the context of a global anti-fascist war.
AB - This essay is a partial history of the term ‘Social Darwinism’. Using large electronic databases, it is shown that the use of the term in leading Anglophone academic journals was rare up to the 1940s. Citations of the term were generally disapproving of the racist or imperialist ideologies with which it was associated. Neither Herbert Spencer nor William Graham Sumner were described as Social Darwinists in this early literature. Talcott Parsons (1932, 1934, 1937) extended the meaning of the term to describe any extensive use of ideas from biology in the social sciences. Subsequently, Richard Hofstadter (1944) gave the use of the term a huge boost, in the context of a global anti-fascist war.
U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2004.00239.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2004.00239.x
M3 - Article
SN - 0952-1909
VL - 17
SP - 428
EP - 463
JO - Journal of Historical Sociology
JF - Journal of Historical Sociology
IS - 4
ER -