Home  |  E-Mail  |  Download Lessons  |  Interactive Quiz

Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism is the belief that all personal and social problems were inherited. The proponents of social Darwinism believed poverty and many other social ills were the result of bad genes. In the 1920s, eugenics movements were popular in many countries, including the United States and Germany. Eugenics is the study of human improvement by genetic means. Many eugenicists saw themselves as visionaries who would one day create a world free of poverty, and physical and mental illness. Some American lawmakers cited eugenics in their efforts to limit immigration from Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Ireland.

Adolf Hitler’s racial theories were based on social Darwinism. “The stronger has to rule and must not mate with the weaker,” Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf. “Only the born weakling can consider this cruel.”

Social Darwinism was popular among many intellectuals in the nineteenth century, but has since been rejected. Subsequent research has undermined rather than supported the theories of social Darwinism.

To cite this page:
Dowling, Mike, "Social Darwinism," available from http://www.mrdowling.com/706socialdarwinism.html; Internet; updated Sunday, January 22, 2006. ©2009, Mike Dowling. All rights reserved.  Privacy Policy