This book challenges the received view that Darwinism generated essentially aggressive and warlike social values and pugnacious images of humankind. Paul Crook reconstructs the influential discourse of "peace biology," whose liberal vision was of a basically free humanity, not fettered by iron laws of biological necessity or governed by violent genes. By exploring a gamut of Darwinian readings of history and war, mainly in the English-speaking world prior to 1919, this study throws important new light on militarism, peace movements, the origins of World War I and British social thought.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Crook substantiates a sophisticated argument with exhaustive research covering every major writer and most of the minor figures who contributed to the debate....an extremely useful and nuanced examination of the extent to which writers on the relationship between war and human progress labored to make Darwin's work support their views." Journal of Military History
"In this valuable work, Paul Crook presents a comprehensive review of the debates over the biological causes and effects of war, stimulated by Darwinism, Mendelian genetics, and eugenics. ...a highly useful and informative work..." American Historical Review
"...a superb study in the biological semantics of human conflict. Here 'Darwinism' not only stands for 'one of the great scientific revolutions of modern times', but it is also seen as a theoretical legacy..." James Moore, The Times Higher Education Supplement
"The principal strength of Crook's book is the careful, comparative textual analysis that characterizes Crook's treatment of the ideas he examines....this is first rate, old fashioned, intellectual history, which means it is both readable and comprehensible....this is a book that adds so much to our understanding of the origins of controversial, modern sociobiological thought." Richard A. Soloway, Comptes rendus
"In this valuable work, Paul Crook presents a comprehensive review of the debates over the biological causes and effects of war, stimulated by Darwinism, Mendelian genetics, and eugenics. ...a highly useful and informative work..." American Historical Review
"...a superb study in the biological semantics of human conflict. Here 'Darwinism' not only stands for 'one of the great scientific revolutions of modern times', but it is also seen as a theoretical legacy..." James Moore, The Times Higher Education Supplement
"The principal strength of Crook's book is the careful, comparative textual analysis that characterizes Crook's treatment of the ideas he examines....this is first rate, old fashioned, intellectual history, which means it is both readable and comprehensible....this is a book that adds so much to our understanding of the origins of controversial, modern sociobiological thought." Richard A. Soloway, Comptes rendus
Book Description
By exploring a gamut of Darwinian readings of history and war, mainly in the English-speaking world prior to 1919, this study throws important new light on militarism, peace movements, the origins of World War I and British social thought.
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First Sentence:
Darwinism has often been blamed for encouraging the idea that humankind is essentially pugnacious and competitive, and that war is therefore a normal part of the human condition. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
peace eugenics, peace biology, biological militarism, peace eugenists, human pugnacity, survivor ethic, selective struggle, military selection, holistic ecology, crowd theory, war selection, peace apostles, germ plasm theory, militant society, peace ideal, evolutionary ethics, fighting animal, naturalistic ethics, instinct theory, biological images, social evolutionist Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
First World War, United States, Chalmers Mitchell, Social Darwinist, Benjamin Kidd, Havelock Ellis, Boer War, Herbert Spencer, Karl Pearson, Graham Wallas, Arthur Koestler, Norman Angell, American Civil War, Lloyd Morgan, Raymond Pearl, Arthur Thomson, Jacques Novicow, Robert Munro, Walter Bagehot, Samuel Jackson Holmes, The Great Illusion, William James New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Darwinism has often been blamed for encouraging the idea that humankind is essentially pugnacious and competitive, and that war is therefore a normal part of the human condition. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
peace eugenics, peace biology, biological militarism, peace eugenists, human pugnacity, survivor ethic, selective struggle, military selection, holistic ecology, crowd theory, war selection, peace apostles, germ plasm theory, militant society, peace ideal, evolutionary ethics, fighting animal, naturalistic ethics, instinct theory, biological images, social evolutionist Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
First World War, United States, Chalmers Mitchell, Social Darwinist, Benjamin Kidd, Havelock Ellis, Boer War, Herbert Spencer, Karl Pearson, Graham Wallas, Arthur Koestler, Norman Angell, American Civil War, Lloyd Morgan, Raymond Pearl, Arthur Thomson, Jacques Novicow, Robert Munro, Walter Bagehot, Samuel Jackson Holmes, The Great Illusion, William James New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 149
books:
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29
books
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- Ascent of Man by Henry Drummond on 5 pages
- Essays in War-Time by Havelock Ellis on 5 pages
- The Ghost in the Machine (The Danube edition) by Arthur Koestler on 5 pages
- Social Darwinism and English thought: The interaction between biological and social theory (Harvester studies in philosophy) by Greta Jones on 5 pages
- Valor of Ignorance by Homer Lea on 5 pages
See all 149 books this book cites
- Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945: Nature as Model and Nature as Threat by Mike Hawkins on 11 pages
- A Companion to American Foreign Relations (Blackwell Companions to American History) by Robert Schulzinger on page 94, and Back Matter
- Depictions and Images of War in Edwardian Newspapers 1899-1914 by Glenn R. Wilkinson in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision by Louis Breger in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision--An Analytical Biography by Louis Breger in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
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