It’s his merit that he has placed Darwin himself clearly in the foreground as originator of the debate on social evolution in the second half of the nineteenth century. Against this there is the drawback that Mr Hermans has not resisted the temptation to walk every side-road he encountered in his long trail of study. He needs quite a lot of space to both distinguish and connect all the diverse currents. (…) In spite of these critical remarks, in my final verdict appreciation for this clever piece of work of Mr Hermans takes precedence.

Hermans gives us an elaborate and very thorough overview of the ideas of these ‘social Darwinists’, who succeeded in misapproprating the theory of evolution for their personal political interests…. [His] most readable study offers a fascinating sampling of these thinkers and men of action from the late nineteenth century, all under the spell of expected downfall.