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.

Analysing the works of social theorists such as Herbert Spencer, Alfred Russell Wallace, Ernst Haeckel, and Alfred Schäffle, as well as Darwin’s own work, Dr Hermans concludes that, although not a homogeneous ideology, different versions of social Darwinism all centred around the general notion that modern society could not, in the long run, disrupt natural selection without grave consequences.