Social Evolution. New Edition With A New Preface

X, 348 Pp + Ads At Rear. Green Cloth, Gilt. Second Edition. Later Printing October 1894. Frayed At Spine Ends And At Sides Of Top Of Sine, Minute Frays At Tips, Rear Hinge Cracked. Gilt Bright. Per Wikipedia, Benjamin Kidd (1858–1916) Was A British Sociologist Whose First Job Was A Civil Service Clerk, But By Persistent Self-Education, He Became Internationally Famous By The Publication Of His Book Social Evolution In 1894. Kidd Argued That The "Evolution Of Society And Of Modern Civilization" Is Caused Not By Reason Or Science, But By The Force Of "Religious Beliefs." The Major Theme Of The Book (And Later Works), Is That Religion Is "The Chief Agency In Promoting Philanthropy And The Political Enfranchisement." In Contrast, Kidd Views Reason As "Selfish And Short-Sighted] The Book Had Worldwide Circulation And Impacted The Social Gospel Movement. Kidd Is Reckoned By Some As A Founder Of Sociology As A Discipline. Influenced By Darwinism And Evolution, Kidd Sought And Found Analogies Between The Evolution Of Human Society And Of The Biological Organism. Kidd's Prolific Writings Had A Major Impact At The Time. However, "Believers Were Offended By Kidd's Functional Defence Of Religion, Scientists By His Faith In Unreason And Loose Speculation, The Scholarly By His Pinched Concept Of Rationality And His Slanted Account Of History." One Scholarly Book Expressed "Grave Distrust Of The Process By Which Mr. Kidd Reaches His Conclusion" And "Of The Terms In Which He Formulates" It. Theodore Roosevelt Found The Book's "Argument Is So Loose" That It Could Be Construed As Meaning Contradictory Things. The Central Point Of Kidd's Argument Is "Radically False." The Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography' (1927) Described Social Evolution As "Incoherent," "Full Of Pretentious Rhetoric," And Like "Sensational Journalism." Academic Circles Never Took Kidd's Work Seriously. A Vehement Critic Of Benjamin Kidd's Ideas About Social Evolution Was The Freethinker And Music Critic Ernest Newman. Under His Pseudonym Hugh Mortimer Cecil, Newman Criticized Kidd's Notion Of Progress And The Teleological Content Of His Model Of Social Evolution As Pseudoscience. Kidd's Principles Of Western Civilization (1902) Received Negative Reviews As Reported In The Review Of Reviews. The Review In The Positivist Review Used Such Terms As "Imbecility," "Sonorous Fatuity," "Rank Nonsense," And "Metaphysical Bamboozlement." The Review In The Fortnightly Review Called Kidd's History "Muddled And Perverted" And Described The Book As "A Wordy Confusion . . . Without Real Definiteness Or Point.".…