Book Description
In the second decade of the twentieth century, an idea became all too fashionable among those who feel it is their right to set social trends. Wealthy families took it on as a pet cause, generously bankrolling its research. The New York Times praised it as a wonderful "new science." Scientists, such as the brilliant plant biologist, Luther Burbank, praised it unashamedly. Educators as prominent as Charles Elliot, President of Harvard University, promoted it as a solution to social ills. America's public schools did their part. In the 1920s, almost three-fourths of high school social science textbooks taught its principles. Not to be outdone, judges and physicians called for those principles to be enshrined into law. Congress agree, passing the 1924 immigration law to exclude from American shores the people of Eastern and Southern Europe that the idea branded as inferior. In 1927, the U. S. Supreme Court joined the chorus, ruling by a lopsided vote of 8 to 1 that the sterilization of unwilling men and women was constitutional.
That idea was eugenics and in the English-speaking world it had virtually no critics among the "chattering classes." When he wrote this book, Chesterton stood virtually alone against the intellectual world of his day. Yet to his eternal credit, he showed no sign of being intimidated by the prestige of his foes. On the contrary, he thunders against eugenics, ranking it one of the great evils of modern society. And, in perhaps one of the most chillingly accurate prophecies of the century, he warns that the ideas that eugenics had unleashed were likely to bear bitter fruit in another nation. That nation was Germany, the "very land of scientific culture from which the ideal of a Superman had come." In fact, the very group that Nazism tried to exterminate, Eastern European Jews, and the group it targeted for later extermination, the Slavs, were two of those whose biological unfitness eugenists sought so eagerly to confirm.
What are sometimes called the "excesses" of Nazism drove the open advocacy of eugenics underground. But there's little evidence that the elements of society who once trumpeted the idea have changed their mind. Dr. Alan Guttmacher provides a good example. The fact that he had been Vice-President of the American Eugenics Association was no hindrance to his assuming the Presidency of Planned ParenthoodWorld Population in 1962. And his seedy past did not keep Congress from providing millions of dollars in federal funds to Planned Parenthood. Nor did it stop the Supreme Court from carrying out the central item in Dr. Guttmacher's political agenda‹legalized abortion. Many of those who now admit that eugenics was evil have trouble explaining why so few of its advocates were every exposed and why so many are still honored.
As the title suggests, eugenics is not the only evil that Chesterton blasts. Socialism gets some brilliantly worded broadsides and Chesterton, in complete fairness, does not spare capitalism. He also attacks the scientifically justified regimentation that others call the "health police." The same rationalizations that justified eugenics, he notes, can also be used to deprive a working man of his beer or any man of his pipe. Although it was first published in 1922, there's a startling relevance to what Chesterton had to say about mettlesome bureaucrats who deprive life of its little pleasures and freedoms. His tale about an unfortunate man fired because "his old cherry-briar" "might set the water-works on fire" is priceless.
That tale illustrates Chesterton's brilliant use of humor, a knack his foes were quick to realize. In their review of his book, Birth Control News griped, "His tendency is reactionary, and as he succeeds in making most people laugh, his influence in the wrong direction is considerable. Eugenics Review was even blunter. "The only interest in this book," they said, "is pathological. It is a revelation of the ineptitude to which ignorance and blind prejudice may reduce an intelligent man."
History has been far kinder to Chesterton than to his critics. It's now generally agree that eugenics was born of evolution and the "ignorance and blind prejudice" of social elites. But never forget that Chesterton was the first to say so, condemning what many of his peers praised.
The completely new edition of Chesterton's classic includes almost fifty pages from the writings of Chesterton's opponents. They illustrate just how accurate his attacks on eugenists were. For researchers, it also includes a detailed, 13-page index.
Customer Reviews:
Eugenics.......2007-10-01
Eugenics is a GREAT EVIL. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parent Hood, was associated with Adolph Hitler. She wanted birth control for only people of color, the poor and the catholics. When the Holocost came up front, they pulled back. But, the philosophy hasn't changed. They are fighting to export abortion to foreign countrys. I really think that we really need to wake up. We have professors that think we should kill babys born with Down's Syndrom and Spina Bifida. This is after they are born. What more do we need to know? Pax
Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State.......2007-09-10
For a collection of essays written prior to the first World War, Chesterton may have been addressing a modern audience rather than his contemporary one; yet anyone who has read Chesterton could say that regarding any number of his books. True, this book was published after WWI, much of it was written as a response to what Eugenicists were asserting at the time. A note for the editor: have the copy proofread prior to publishing. There are many errors which ought to have been caught before printing. The idea of re-printing the Eugenic articles is a novel idea.
On a final note, much of the eugenic ideal has been absorbed into modern thinking. The hate has been better disguised, but the hateful ideas are well incorporated into the fabric of modern life.
Catholic church was right about eugenics........2006-03-28
I'm a brazilian(unemployed) agronomist.I read this good book free on internet.This is a good book.
When this good book was writen, eugenics was supported by great scholars,famous politics, famous doctors(Dr. Morris Fishbein, the AMA's President), famous americans presidents,etc.
Against all of these stooges, came Gilbert K. Chesterton, a writer catholic man.
After all, Roman Catholic Church and G. K. Chesterton were right about eugenics.
After nazism, eugenics became so ridiculous, that now, eugenics has a new name:Ecology.
Towering ingnorance combined with degenerate wit = true evil.......2006-02-23
This book is a good one in illustrating how a great wit can be beset by such towering and willfully destructive ignorance. The only true evil is ignorance. Chesterton says that eugenics is somehow evil and immoral, but by any objective standard it is just the opposite. There has never been either a logical or cogent argument against eugenics. There are mountains of evidence for the importance and benefit of eugenics in modern science (see Richard Lynn "dysgenics", for one example).
Additionally, eugenics was God's own method for creating and sustaining life on Earth. This is apparent to anyone who can open their eyes to the world around them. This fact of nature can hardly be disputed except by the most willfully ignorant. It is difficult to see the benefits of eugenics if you are ignorant, because it involves the integration and extrapolation of complex ideas over time. This is itself an argument for eugenics. Most ingnorant folk simply live for today, live for pleasure now.... Many unpleasureable things are necessary for the future of life, unfortunately. We have courts and jail systems and these require intellect and fairness for justice to be served. This is also a form of eugenics and quite moral. Evolution is imperfect -- sometimes the otherwise superior are killed by chance occurances in nature, and the errant low-IQ criminal here and there. Ignorance is universally destructive of all the ideals of civilization, science is the destruction of ignorance. Read this book with these things in mind in the spirit of Ripley's Believe it or Not! Believe it or not, people actually think this way against all the facts. Fascinating reading.
The process of selection in evolution can be disconnected by advancing technologies, etc. Unfortunately genetic deterioration is a constant threat which needs to be selected out. The most highly prolific in modern abundant societies are the least beneficial and those with the least vision and intellect. This cannot go on for two many generations without it all crashing down. How is this moral? Since when is destruction and creating a hell on Earth moral? More important than IQ is conscientiousness -- a reliably measureable personality trait -- which is in rapid decline.
We must have concern for genetics in eugenics and ecological concerns for the environment and all for all the other consequences of technologically advanced societies. This is an emergency situation of epic proportions -- the most pressing imperative of the 21st century... read this book to get an idea of the astounding depravity of populist ignorance and its danger to us all and to our childrens future.
The Evils of the Scientifically Managed State........2004-07-10
In the book _Eugenics and Other Evils_, Roman Catholic writer G. K. Chesterton takes on the eugenists and their immoral and unethical program for human breeding. At the time, eugenists (among both the Social Darwinist "Right" and the Socialist Left) proposed various methods for interfering with human breeding to promote a social agenda and impact the human population. One form of eugenics, referred to as "positive eugenics", sought to increase the birthrate of the "fit" (mainly the upper, educated classes) through incentive programs. Another form of eugenics, referred to as "negative eugenics", sought to decrease the birthrate of the "unfit" (mainly the lower classes, the "mentally feeble", and chronically ill populations) through birth control (or even more diabolical means, later on, such as abortion or euthanasia). Chesterton takes on both forms of eugenics as well as the "birth controllers", both of whom planned on limiting the rights of those deemed "mentally feeble" to procreate, and shows through a series of paradoxes exactly how immoral, unethical, and downright mean their program is. Chesterton's condemnations of this program are consistent with his Roman Catholic beliefs and the condemnation of both eugenics and birth control by subsequent popes. It is for this reason that many involved in the birth control movement came to label Chesterton as a "deeply reactionary man" who stood in the way of progress. In his book _The Servile State_, Chesterton's friend and fellow writer Hilaire Belloc notes how society is progressing in a direction towards servility, in which more and more will work for less and less, collectively losing their liberties. Belloc contrasted this state of affairs to the current capitalist state (run according to the principles of competition and greed, amounting to plutocracy) and that state dreamed up by socialist reformers (calling for the elimination of property rights, and thus a complete suppression of liberty), both of which Belloc regarded as immoral and un-Christian. As an alternative, Belloc proposed a "distributivist state" which would allow for mass ownership of private property and the means of production, while curtailing the evils of monopoly capitalism run amok. Like Belloc, Chesterton too advocates a distributivist state, championing property while at the same time pointing to the excesses of monopoly capitalism and plutocracy-oligarchy. In addition, Chesterton notes that while the "servile state" is upon us, so is the "eugenic state" in which the right to marriage and procreation will be limited by the elite controllers within the state. Chesterton points out how diabolical and grossly unfair this situation is, with plenty of recourse to his usual writing style and witticism. As Chesterton notes, within the current state of affairs, those among the lower classes and the poor do not stand a chance, their rights to property being denied them (contrary to the situation that existed within the Middle Ages, where a serf could at least maintain a right to property), and are often imprisoned unfairly or abused by the system. Chesterton sees within the eugenics movement another form of abuse (particularly of the poor and those deemed "feeble minded"). Indeed, much of this book is spent critiquing various legislative actions taken against the so called "feeble minded", which Chesterton shows to be a term without meaning, being used merely as a slur against certain unpopular and not well liked individuals among the lower classes. To explain the rise of eugenics Chesterton examines the social Darwinist views of the capitalist class. As Chesterton notes, many of those in the highest class have swung full spectrum from the Socialist Left to the extreme "Right" as they accumulate wealth and advance plutocracy. In America, robber barons such as Rockefeller notoriously funded the eugenics movement, in an attempt to further his power and as Chesterton cynically notes to provide workers for his business. Indeed, the documented evidence against Rockefeller's involvement in such immoralities is enormous and certainly merits additional study. While many of those who supported eugenics (and especially birth control) consisted of those among the Socialist Left, Chesterton notes that these individuals remain largely dupes to their elite controllers, as well as radical feminists who fail to understand the true virtues of womanhood. Certainly these radical feminists (almost entirely composed of women from the upper classes, coincidentally) do not represent the vast majority of the female race, who are certainly not opposed to motherhood, whether or not they personally desire to become mothers themselves. These sorts of observations of Chesterton would prove especially prescient, especially in light of the events that were to come during the Second World War (as well as the evils of the Soviet state bureaucracy) and the modern day legalization of abortion and proliferation of birth control methods. While eugenists maintain that they are champions of the poor or of the unborn child, as Chesterton shows they are merely evil individuals among the elite classes whose sole interest is limiting the growth of "undesirable" elements within society, or alarmist Malthusians. This essay of Chesterton reveals him as a champion of liberty and individualism against the encroaching influence of a maleficent state, under the control of elite plutocrats, as well as a compassionate individual who truly cares for the human person. The book ends with a series of compiled pieces from various eugenics journals and birth control writers, noting their diabolical features as well as their arrogant criticism of Chesterton and Belloc.
Book Description
Evolutionary theory is now one of the main myths of our time. It has to bear the weight of most of our hopes and fears about what being human really means. And for over twenty years it has been riven by a holy war, conducted with an extraordinary fury that reverberates far outside the walls of academe. The two scientific camps are currently divided between 'Dawkinsians' on the one hand who may not agree with Richard Dawkins about very much but are convinced Stephen Jay Gould is dangerously wrong, and the 'Gouldians' on the other hand who take the opposite views. But who is right, or wrong, and what does it all mean? The Darwin Wars is an entertaining and lucid account of the evolution of today's neo-Darwinist theories, including the hugely influential Selfish Gene theory, and the misunderstandings and even deep hatreds that they provoke. With wit and insight, Andrew Brown puts in context the wide-reaching debate and explains its real significance for us all. For just as Darwinism now provides the main explanatory framework of our times, so disputes about Darwinism are really disputes about our very nature and place in the world
Customer Reviews:
This is NOT about Evolution VS. Creationism .......2006-09-27
The title of this book may be a little bit confusing, especially to readers in the USA.
I just want to note that this book is not about any type of debate between evolution and creationism/intelligent design. I picked it up thinking it was some type of history about the "controversy." People looking for information about that "debate" will have to look elsewhere.
This book is about the debates going on within the scientific community. This book is about Darwinian (i.e. genetic) explanations regarding human behavior and about the critics and proponents of these ideas. It mainly focuses on the ideas of Richard Dawkins vs. the ideas of Steven Jay Gould, but seems rather sympathetic to Gould's point of view, while still giving Dawkins his equal amount of "airtime."
Animal minds made human.......2006-03-11
It is exciting times to be a thinking ape. After millions of years of evolution we exist at the point in time when the implications of the discovery of our primate ancestry are being played out in the scientific, philosophical and literary worlds, when the potentials of millions of years of future evolution are being examined and even the possibilites of taking control of the destiny of our species is being entertained. And it is fitting that the men and women who are determining the scientific and cultural debate as to what it means to be a being created by the same rules that produced the earthworm should be themselves so recognisably human all too human, vividly portrayed here by Andrew Brown.
Whether or not the human animal can overcome those rules and create a world that is not destined by algorithmic game theory to contain an inherent core of suffering and exploitation is one of the key intellectual issues of the 21st century. One wont come away from reading this beautifully clear book with a definite answer, but you will gain a very human and personal sense of what is involved in merely asking the question.
Easy reading, but well researched.......2005-05-13
Ever since biologists such as Edward O. Wilson and Richard Dawkins first popularized the idea that human psychology might be explainable in Darwinian terms, they encountered fierce opposition, not only from sociologists brought up on the "standard model" whereby the mind is a blank slate, but also, and less obviously, from other biologists, such as Stephen J. Gould and Richard Lewontin, who saw evolutionary psychology as genetic determinism. The battles between different groups of biologists, whom Andrew Brown characterizes as Dawkinsians and Gouldians (while recognizing that nobody will be happy with these names: "this won't please anyone involved"), were remarkably vicious, full of ill will on both sides, and, for anyone who was not emotionally engaged in the struggle, entertaining to read about. Andrew Brown has risen warmly to the challenge, and has written a very readable book about them.
He is a journalist, and has a journalist's ability to write clearly and well, but, far more than that, he has a scholar's ability to check his facts and to get them right, and to present opinions that he does not necessarily agree with in a fair and balanced way. He interviewed many of the participants, and appears to have established friendly relations with everyone he spoke to. He has also studied the biological and philosophical aspects with care, and his opinions are worthy of respect. Only occasionally does he lapse into unsupported assertions, as, for example, when he writes "Is the difference in the striping of Burchell's and Grevy's zebra a result of different selection pressures in the different parts of Africa where these species originated, or, as is more likely, was there simply a selection for striping to which the genotypes of the two species responded differently?" With his "as is more likely" he seems to be assuming the point that he ought to be arguing.
Brown devotes several pages to a sympathetic examination of Elaine Morgan's views on the aquatic origins of humanity, ultimately coming the conclusion that they cannot be completely correct, but nonetheless treating them with far more respect than some of her critics have done. He also almost manages the superhuman feat of presenting Mary Midgley in a favourable light -- she of the "up till now I have not attended to Dawkins, thinking it unnecessary to break a butterfly upon a wheel."
As Brown notes, the Darwin wars have been quite separate from the battles with creationists, all of the participants he writes about being evolutionists, all of them regarding themselves as being in the tradition of Darwin. All of them, therefore, have been non-religious, and in some cases on the Dawkinsian side extremely hostile to religion, with an almost religious, and certainly fundamentalist, fervour in their attacks on Christianity. Brown describes himself as an atheist, albeit one who worked as the religious correspondent of a newspaper in the years before undertaking the book, but he considers that intolerant atheism can be as harmful to human freedom as intolerant religious fundamentalism. By the end of the book, therefore, one feels that although he is more of a Dawkinsian than a Gouldian he is far from being wholly on one side or the other.
It is interesting to compare The Darwin Wars with Defenders of the Truth, another book written on the same subject at about the same time by Ullica Segerstråle. The two books cover much the same ground, but Segerstråle's is much longer (about twice the length, if one allows for the larger amount of text on each page), and is written from the point of view of an academic sociologist rather than that of a journalist. She shares Brown's concern with seeing both sides of the dispute, with getting her facts right, and with presenting the different points of view in a fair way. Both books are excellent, and both are essential reading if one is interested in the subject. Neither mentions the other, but they were being written at the same time, and published at much the same time, so neither author is likely to have had access to the other's work while writing.
A pretty good look at the power of the modern synthesis.......2003-12-12
I think, first off, we ought to put away the idea that it is somehow wrong or remarkable that Brown is a journalist writing a book about science.
The extent to which a good journalist (and Brown is one) cannot sufficently grasp the issues in modern Darwinism is precisely the extent to which no popular books ought to be written about it at all, by anyone.
If an intelligent journalist working full time on the issue can't correctly understand it, what hope does the casual reader have?
The fact is that most of the issues really aren't all that tough, and where things do get complicated, the issues are often philosophical and interpretive. Areas where scientists have not shown themselves to be particularly adroit (as Brown notes). There is plenty of writing out there by scientists whose credentials in the lab are impeccable and whose command of the facts I wouldn't dare to question.
But when some of these folks quit the job of fact gathering and start interpreting and sketching out implications . . . well, let's just say that words & phases like naive, wishful thinking, overly ambitious and even stupid start coming to mind.
Brown (though he briefly forgets which sex is XY) generally seems to have his facts straight, he digs up little-told portions of the history of the Darwin Wars, and has an interesting take on the personalities involved.
Brown's philosophical sympathies lie with the Gould camp (emphasizing the limits on what science can really say with confidence about things like society and culture), but he presents a pretty balanced view nonetheless, very solid on the sometimes rather half-baked philosphical underpinnings of scientific interpretation at its most exalted (and perhaps most dangerous) level.
A valuable book.
A battlefield tour.......2002-05-20
A journalist writing on science embarks on a perilous journey. Preparation requires knowledge of the path, the likely hazards, and how to avoid awkward detours. When the trail passes through a disputed area, every risk is multiplied. In this instance, the dispute is interpreting how Darwin's idea of natural selection works. Andrew Brown makes a valiant effort to learn the route, chart the perils and keep to the centre. Even his vivid writing skills can't prevent him failing on nearly every count. Granted, the best informed writers have stumbled on the same trek. Brown, however, misses the whole point of the dispute.
His Foreward states that "Darwinian explanations" about the world have led to acrimonious scientific debate. The remainder of the book tries to outline those debates and their participants. The tragic story of George Price, a transplanted American who died in London in 1974, reveals the issue. Price had reformulated William Hamilton's earlier work on altruism. Nature, it seemed, offered little reward for altruism. The knowledge sent Price first into insanity, then suicide. The Hamilton/Price work brought Richard Dawkins to develop his idea of "the selfish gene." Brown struggles to comprehend Dawkins' idea that strings of molecules "desire" only to replicate. He turns to Dawkins' appearance and antecedents to relieve his confusion. He scorns Dawkins use of metaphor, labelling him "vulgar", then fills
this book with his own. Dawkins becomes the label for thinkers in one side of Brown's Darwin Wars - the "Dawkinsians." Although admitting its weakness, Brown retains the identification throughout.
The Dawkinsians are countered by the allies of Stephen J. Gould - "the pope of paleontology." Brown is clearly in awe of Gould's writing ability and reputation for accuracy. Unfortunately, Brown's veneration shields him from another of Gould's talents - the building of artificial targets for scathing assaults. Brown is more correct in his labelling of "Gouldians," since his quotes of Gould, Lewontin and Rose follow the long-established pattern. Lewontin characterized E.O. Wilson's Sociobiology as "bad science," even in the face of later work supporting it. Brown notes that Gould, Lewontin and Rose stood aligned against the rising science of evolutionary psychology. There's another aspect of Gouldians Brown favours. Brown, an athiest who writes for religious journals [i'm not making this up!], sympathizes
with Gould's "respect" for religions as opposed to Dawkins' argument that "any religion is irrational." Ultimately, when Brown takes an capricious detour later in the book, grants Gould and his "position" acceptable.
The detour is into the realm of philosophy. It's bad enough for a religion writer to attempt to write on science. Brown's excursion into science-cum-philosophy is wholly unwarranted. All the more so when he openly admits his inadequacies. Gould's most incisive critic isn't Dawkins, it's philosopher Daniel C. Dennett. Brown confesses his failure to understand Dennett's "Consciousness Explained," although that excellent book is but thinly related to Brown's theme. The real thrust is Dennett's "Darwin's Dangerous Idea," which Brown doesn't understand either, but he fails to state that as openly. Brown claims DDI is a "freshly ground axe," instead of a surgically precise instrument eviscerating Gould's misuse of evidence. Because Dennett isn't a biologist, Brown accuses him of a "let's you and him fight" attitude, running from the fray after initiating it. Anyone who has read Dennett will never forgive such a slander. As a counter to Dennett, Brown gambits British philosopher Mary Midgley "in her large, sensible shoes." Besides her footwear, Midgely contributed only "her gift for the eviscerating phrase" to the debate. Her science, even Brown admits, was "confused and ignorant." Perhaps Brown is correct in assigning her to the Gouldian faction.
Brown fails to directly come to grips with the fundamental issue. How did natural selection produce thinking humans, and what, if any, is their role in the universe? After his tour of the biological battleground, he uses a cute chapter title, "How the Meme Raths Outgrabe" to again display his faulty understanding of Dawkins. Brown uses Dawkins' idea of the "meme," a replicable idea, to introduce a discussion of "morality." This was the issue that drove Price to suicide, Brown reminds us. Is the universe benevolent, offering some hope in the face of injustice? Or is it malign, a condition which brings Midgley again forward to declare as "madness." Brown, however, fails to consider the proper alternative - the universe is indifferent. If he'd read Dennett instead of maligning him, Brown might have caught the point.
There's some value in this book in the introduction of some issues and a few of the personalities. If you wish to understand why the Darwin Wars came about, however, you must turn to the sources. A compromise option is Ullica Segerstrale's Defenders of the Truth. Although excellent, its focus is on the American participants, which, thankfully, omits Midgley.
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Spitfires over Darwin, 1943: No. 1 Fighter Wing
Jim Grant
Manufacturer: RJ Moore
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ASIN: 0646236326 |
Book Description
War, ethnic conflict, and biological terror are our greatest international challenges of the new century. War currently rages from Iraq to Colombia to Sri Lanka, genocide recently devastated Rwanda and Bosnia, anthrax spores caused panic and killed citizens in the United States, and threats of terrorism are remaking foreign policy the world over.
Groundbreaking in both its scope and conclusions, Darwin and International Relations refocuses the study of international affairs through the lens of evolutionary theory. Bradley A. Thayer provides a radically new framework for investigating and explaining human and state behavior, offering penetrating insights into the origins of human and animal warfare, ethnic conflict, and the influence of epidemiology on international relations.
Using ethnological and statistical studies of warfare among tribal societies, Thayer argues that humans wage war for reasons predicted by evolutionary theory—to gain and protect vital resources. He also examines the physically and emotionally stimulating effects of combat, concluding that the threat of external attack has rapidly advanced the evolution of human intelligence and social development.
Thayer demonstrates that an evolutionary understanding of disease will soon become a vital part of the study of international relations as new strains of diseases emerge and advances in genetics make biological weaponry a more effective tool for states and terrorists. He also explains the roots of ethnic conflict by illuminating how xenophobia and ethnocentrism have played a significant role in human evolution. These socially and biologically conditioned responses contributed to our ancestors' success by protecting them from disease, and although human evolution took place in a dramatically different environment, these traits remain a part of us today.
An arresting examination of how ancient human behaviors of war and ethnic conflict continue to afflict the modern era, Darwin and International Relations makes a major contribution to our understanding of human history and international relations.
Customer Reviews:
Understanding International Relations.......2007-01-30
The author uses evolutionary theory to develop ultimate explanations for common phenomena (warfare, ethnic conflict) that have largely eluded other international relations scholars. The basic argument is that warfare is an adaptation like other social behaviors. For our ancestors, on average, the benefits for participants in terms of the evolutionary currency of genes (or inclusive fitness) exceeded the costs. These benefits were mainly protection of kin and resources. In-group out-group distinctions, xenophobia, and ethnocentrism are also adaptations, and now supply the raw material for ethnic conflict.
The author acknowledges the contributions of international relations scholars using the standard social science model, including realists and rational choice scholars, but argues that their theories and explanations focus mainly on proximate causes and, problematically, are often not consilent with knowledge in the life sciences.
The author does an excellent job of reviewing the research conducted on intergroup aggression in animals, warfare among ants, and intraspecific killing among chimpanzees. There are able reviews of the literature on primitive warfare and the motivation/emotions of warriors. The little discussed by pivotal role of disease in facilitating and inhibiting Western expansion is discussed. Current theories of ethnic conflict--primordialism and modernism--are compared and their strengths and weaknesses identified.
This book should be read widely by anybody who wants a deeper, well-grounded, scientific understanding of the roots of warfare and ethnic conflict
Fine command of the literature.......2006-01-03
Bradley Thayer's book demonstrates an encyclopedic command of the literature. The volume lays out the relevance for the relevance of evolutionary theory for our understanding of international relations. Given the political furor over creationism, intelligent design, and neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory, this work serves an important purpose. Thayer demonstrates the power of evolutionary theory in explaining many of the political phenomena associated with international politics. Readers interested in the implications of evolutionary theory for international politics would be well-advised to examine this volume.
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Darwin Wars
Andrew Brown
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Intl
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ASIN: 0684851458 |
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Darwinism, War and History: The Debate over the Biology of War from the 'Origin of Species' to the First World War
Paul Crook
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521466458 |
Book Description
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.
Books:
- Europa The Ocean Moon: Search For An Alien Biosphere (Springer Praxis Books / Geophysical Sciences)
- Evolution
- Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives
- Evolutionary Analysis, Third Edition
- Evolutionary Catastrophes: The Science of Mass Extinction
- Fields Virology 2 volume set
- Fields Virology 2 volume set
- From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books (Voyage of the Beagle, The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals)
- From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books (Voyage of the Beagle, The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals)
- Fundamentals of Molecular Virology
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- Albatrosses, Petrels and Shearwaters of the World
- History: Fiction or Science
- Twilight on the Bay: The Excursion Boat Empire of B.B. Wills
- Unforgettable Men in Unforgettable Times
War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race
Preaching Eugenics: Religious Leaders and the American Eugenics Movement
What's Wrong With the World
The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism
The Hope, Hype, and Reality of Genetic Engineering: Remarkable Stories from Agriculture, Industry, Medicine, and the Environment
