Darwin and the Politics of Evolution

Catalog description

The application of evolution to human society is commonly equated with Social Darwinism, but in fact evolution, in the nineteenth century, was linked to a vast range of social concerns and used to justify or advance conflicting political agendas: racial hierarchy and racial equality; ruthless competition and mutual aid; misogyny and women's liberation. This class looks at the political uses to which theories of evolution were put in the nineteenth century, and the political contexts that informed the theory itself, particularly Darwin's influential formulations of it. We begin with working-class radicals who, well before Darwin, drew on French theories of evolution to argue for a more egalitarian society; we look at the role of the antislavery movement in Darwin's thinking, and the application of his theories to race and empire; we examine how evolutionary theory intersected with non-Europeans understandings of the origins of life and species; and we consider the gender politics of sexual selection. Readings may include Desmond and Moore's Darwin's Sacred Cause, Evelleen Richards's Darwin and the Making of Sexual Selection, H. G. Wells's The Time Machine, and selections from several works by Darwin. Work for the course will include a regular blogging assignment, short response papers, and brief presentations, as well as two formal essays, the second of which will have a research component.