Social Evolutionism : A Critical History [Paperback]

In Social Evolutionism Stephen Sanderson provide a lucid account of a body of theory that has profoundly affected both intellectual and popular assumptions about human nature, society, and behavior. He describes the prominent and controversial role that evolutionary ideas have played in the development of social theory. He demonstrates the diversity of evolutionary ideas by comparing their notions of causation, their assumptions about human progress, and the adequacy of their modes of explanation and interpretation of evidence. Although he is highly critical of some aspects of evolutionary thinking and some modes of evolutionism, Professor Sanderson shows that an evolutionary interpretation of world history contributes vital insights about the character of human social life.Editor's Preface xi

Preface xv

I The Nature of Social Evolutionism 1

2 Classical Evolutionism 10

3 The Antievolutionary Reaction 36

4 Marxism as Evolutionism 50

5 The Evolutionary Revival 75

6 Sociological Neoevolutionism 103

7 Anthropological Evolutionism Since 1960 131

8 Evolutionary Biology and Social Evolutionism 169

9 Contemporary Antievolutionism 209

10 Toward a Comprehensive Theory of Sociocultural Evolution 223

References 229

Index 244

Sanderson writes with admirable clarity, and with a relaxed, easy-going (yet unpatronizing) style. There is none of the jargon and intellectual pomposity that afflict so much writing in sociological and anthropological theory. Indeed, the book would be readily comprehensive to a virtual beginner with little or no previous knowledge of the field. The Times Higher Education Supplement

Everything graduate students want to prepare for their lC(