Social Darwinists' Sterilization and Death Laws

Part 1· ~2 min read

Another of Social Darwinism's most wide-ranging practices is eugenics, the so-called science that seeks to improve the human race by means of breeding. The term was first proposed in 1883 by Charles Darwin's cousin…

Part 2· ~3 min read

The foundations of the perversion of eugenics were actually laid by Malthus and Darwin. Malthus's Essay , Darwin's source of inspiration, contained the basic ideas that would come to constitute eugenics. For example,…

Part 3· ~5 min read

As already mentioned, the leader of eugenics was Darwin's cousin Francis Galton, but Leonard Darwin, Darwin's own son, was also one of the supporters and proponents of eugenics in Britain. Winston Churchill was…

Part 4· ~4 min read

After Galton's death, the leadership of the eugenics movement passed to America. Henry Goddard, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Harry Laughlin and Madison Grant were just a few of Galton's American heirs.

Part 5· ~26 min read

Ian Kershaw's 1998 biography of Adolf Hitler states that Social Darwinism, eugenics and fascism were closely interconnected in 1920s Germany:

Part 6· ~5 min read

Nazi Germany is a clear example of the sufferings inflicted on people when Social Darwinist ideas are put into practice. Joseph L. Graves Jr., professor of evolutionary biology and author of T he Emperor's New…