Are societys disadvantaged doomed to get selected out of the economic pool? Is Americas social landscape a battleground for survival of the fittest, where only the strong endure? Once again, biology is being used to explain human development, and right-wing ideologues claim reluctance to intervene in the natural workings of the economy. Richard Hofstadters now-classic work offers important insight into how ideas borne out of evolutionary theory continue to effect American values. Tracing the impact of Darwin on thinkers throughout the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, Social Darwinism shows how a politically neutral scientific theory has been adapted with skillful rhetoric to contradictory purposes.