Herbert Spencer

Survival of The Fittest

One byproduct of industrialization and the subsequent rapid accumulation and consolidation of wealth during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, was the generalized theory that a strong work ethic could generate socioeconomic mobility.  This belief was reinforced by industrialists who subscribed to the teachings and philosophy of Herbert Spencer.  Spencer is best known as one of the top sociologists who took Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and applied it to social theory (Johnson).

Interestingly, it was Spencer who developed the well-known phrase “survival of the fittest,” which he based on a hypothesis that self-preservation was an innate human trait, and consequently equated social evolution with Darwin’s idea of biological natural selection.  Spencer believed societal change was an inevitable evolutionary process in which only the strongest would survive, and that weaker orders of humanity would eventually cease to exist (Johnson).

Materially, Spencer thought an elite class of wealth-holders stood a stronger change of survival by the shear virtue of their capacity for social and economic adaptation.  However, a complication for this form of adaptive strategy, if true, implied that economically inferior people were expendable, and if they were expendable wealth-holders would eventually run out of impoverished people to exploit for economic gain.  Spencer’s philosophy was severely flawed, but his concept did not stop its perpetuation (Johnson).

Young Boy Working in a Glass Factory

Writer Horatio Alger, became immensely popular from his “rags-to-riches” stories which promoted one singularly common theme, that a strong work ethic and self-determination were the prescriptive keys to economic success in a competitive labor market.  Many of Alger’s “central characters...were impoverished young boys who used their natural talents” to achieve material success (MindTap).

Alger’s blueprint for socioeconomic achievement caught on like wildfire as popular culture of the period devoured millions of copies (MindTap).  The concept of survival of the fittest became so ingrained in American culture that it continues to be the first line of moral defense for many wealth-holders, today. 

While Alger’s may have modeled his central characters—ordinary-yet-exceptional individuals who transcend economic obscurity—after famous industrial giants such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and J.P. Morgan, all who became pinnacles of material success.  However, the only wealthy industrialist of the period who actually rose from oppressive poverty to stratospheric wealth was Irish immigrant Andrew Carnegie (MindTap).  Which begs a question.  Did Horatio Alger offer instructional guides offering economic hope for the poor laborer, or was his body of work institutionalized propaganda that reinforced Social Darwinism during an age of unregulated capitalist industrialism?

Works Cited

"MindTap - Cengage Learning." MindTap - Cengage Learning. Cengage Learning, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015. <http://ng.cengage.com/static/nb/ui/index.html?nbId=107659&nbNodeId=27378118#!&parentId=27378345>. 15.2 The Rise of Big Business and Industrialization. Social Darwinism

Johnson, Bethany. "Herbert Spencer: Theory & Social Darwinism." Sociology 101: Intro to Sociology. Study.com, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.