Topic, class, and level: Social Darwinism (introduction), modern world history, curriculum A Objectives: 1.

Introduce students to the concept of social Darwinism and scientific racism Understandings: 1. Students will understand the key ideas of social Darwinism and scientific racism 2. Students will understand how these ideas are presented in key readings, and be able to infer specific characteristics of social Darwinism from those readings Assessment: The assessment for this period will be in how well students answer the questions associated with their readings, and the discussions that they have with in their groups. These questions will assist students in making inferences from their readings to further their knowledge of the subject at hand. Additionally, the next day in class, students will be presenting the answers that they generated through these readings, which will serve as a further assessment of their understanding. Instructional Approach: 1. To start class students will be shown this image:

Students will be asked to take about 3-5 minutes to write down what they think the image is showing. After this time I will call on students to find out what they said, at this point in time, I will not have told students what we will be studying yet so they will be completely going off of the image when it comes to deciding what it will be showing. After I have heard several answers, I will tell students what the image is actually showing, and will have a brief discussion with students on how the image resonates with them once they actually know what it is showing. (10 minutes) 2. I will then introduce students to social Darwinism. I will start by asking students if they remember what the ideas of Darwin were. If they do, we will move on to how these ideas were applied to human beings and to race, thereby introducing the concepts of social Darwinism and scientific racism. If they do not, I will review Darwins ideas with

them and then explain social Darwinism and scientific racism. To conclude this section of class I will explain to students that for the rest of class they will be divided into pairs (and one group of three) to read a selection from an article that connects to social Darwinism. I will then introduce the articles to the class, and hand them out. (15 minutes) 3. Once students have been given their readings, they will be asked to complete their reading individually and answer the associated questions. I am not having students get into groups right away, because I want them to take some time to deal with the issue individually so that they all get a chance to think about the meaning and implications of social Darwinism. Additionally, I hope that by having students first answer questions individually, it will prevent one student from doing all of the work once they are in pairs. (10 minutes) 4. Students will then be asked to get into their groups and discuss the answers to their questions. They will be asked to complete a blank question sheet which they have generated group answers. These sheets will be handed into me after their group presents their article and what they have learned. For their presentations students will be asked to generate a short set of notes (2-4) points about their reading. They will then be asked to come up with an interesting and entertaining presentation, which captures the main points of their article. The main points of the article should match the notes that the group develops prior to their presentation. (10 minutes) 5. To conclude class, I will ask students if they have any questions. If they do I will answer them, and if not, I will briefly remind them of what social Darwinism is, and that they will be presenting their readings tomorrow. I will then assign them their homework which is to read the article titled, Race and Science, and tell them that as part of this homework they will need to write a brief paragraph reacting to the article which will be handed into me, and is worth five points. (5 minutes) Skills to be Emphasized: 1. Interpreting an image 2. Inferring information from a document 3. Critical Thinking skills 4. Group communication 5. Presentation skills Materials: 1. Print out of the heads picture 2. Copies of the readings and questions 3. Copies of the Race and Science article for homework 4. Projector or document camera

The Aryan Race is Superior by Adolf Hitler Directions: Read the following excerpt and then answer the attached questions. The name of Adolf Hitler has become synonymous with racism in its most vile form. His notions of Aryan racial superiority and his hatred of Jew, while derived from earlier writers such as Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain, were carried to new and vitriolic extremes. Unlike most racists of similar opinion, Hitler, as chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, was able to translate his ideas into deeds. The result was the annihilation of tens of millions of human lives during World War II Lower Human Types Thus, for the formation of higher cultures the existence of lower human types was one of the most essential preconditions, since they alone were able to compensate for the lack of technical aids without which a higher development is not conceivable. It is certain that the first culture of humanity was based less on the tamed animal than on the use of lower human beings The progress of humanity is like climbing an endless ladder; it is impossible to climb higher without first taking the lower steps. Thus, the Aryan had to take the road to which reality directed him and not the one that would appeal to the imagination of a modern pacifist. The road of reality is hard and difficult, but in the end it leads where our friend would like to bring humanity by dreaming, but unfortunately removes more than bringing it closer. Hence it is no accident that the first cultures arouse in places where the Aryan, in his encounters with lower peoples, subjugated them and bent them to his will. They then became the first technical instrument in the service of a developing culture. Thus, the road which the Aryan had to take was clearly marked out. As a conqueror he subjected the lower beings and regulated their practical activity under his command, according to his will and for his aims. But in directing them to a useful, though arduous activity, he not only spared the life of those he subjected; perhaps he gave them a fate that was better than their previous so-called freedom. As long as he ruthlessly upheld the master attitude, not only did he really remain master, but also the preserver and increaser of culture. For culture was based exclusively on his abilities and hence on his actual survival. As soon as the subjected people began to raise themselves up and probably approached the conqueror in language, the sharp dividing wall between master and servant fell. The Aryan gave up the purity of his blood and, therefore, lost his sojourn in the paradise which he had made for himself. He became submerged in the racial mixture, and gradually, more and more, lost his cultural capacity, until at last, not only mentally but also physically, he began to resemble the subjected aborigines more than his own ancestors. For a time he could live on the existing cultural benefits, but then petrifaction set in and he fell a prey to oblivion. Loss of Pure Blood Thus cultures and empires collapsed to make place for new formations. Blood mixture and the resultant drop in the racial level is the sole cause of the dying out of old cultures; for me do not perish as a result of lost wars, but by the loss of that force of resistance which is contained only in pure blood. All who are not of good race in this world are chaff.1 And all occurrences in world history are only the expression of the races instinct of selfpreservation, in the good or bad sense.

something comparatively worthlessMerriam-Webster online

Adolf Hitler: The Aryan Race is Superior Questions: 1. According to the author, what role do lower human beings play in helping Aryans further human culture? (from the text, p. 211)

2. What does the author claim happens when those peoples subjected by the Aryans begin to raise themselves up? (from the text, p. 211)

3. How does this selection connect to social Darwinism? What elements of Darwins theory are present in this reading?

The White Mans Burden by Rudyard Kipling

Take up the White Man's burden-Send forth the best ye breed-Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild-Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child. Take up the White Man's burden-In patience to abide, To veil the threat of terror And check the show of pride;

made plain To seek another's profit, And work another's gain.

By open speech and simple, An hundred times

Take up the White Man's burden-The savage wars of peace-Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought, Watch sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hopes to nought. Take up the White Man's burden-No tawdry rule of kings,

But toil of serf and sweeper-The tale of common things. The ports ye shall not enter, The roads ye shall not tread, Go mark them with your living, And mark them with your dead. Take up the White Man's burden-And reap his old reward: The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard-The cry of hosts ye humour (Ah, slowly!) toward the light:-"Why brought he us from bondage, Our loved Egyptian night?" Take up the White Man's burden--

Ye dare not stoop to less-Nor call too loud on Freedom To cloke your weariness; By all ye cry or whisper, By all ye leave or do, The silent, sullen peoples Shall weigh your gods and you. Take up the White Man's burden-Have done with childish days-The lightly proferred laurel, The easy, ungrudged praise. Comes now, to search your manhood Through all the thankless years Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom, The judgment of your peers!

Rudyard Kipling, White Mans Burden Questions: 1. What is the justification for imperialism offered in this poem?

2. How does the author/speaker view non-whites? Select a line or stanza, which captures this view, and make specific reference to it, and explain how that represents the authors view.

3. How does this selection connect to social Darwinism? What elements of Darwins theory are present in this reading?

The White Race is Superior by Joseph Arthur comte de Gobineau Directions: Read the following excerpt and then answer the attached questions. Joseph Arthur comte de Gobineau (1816-1882) was a French diplomat and man of letters. The Father of Modern Racism, de Gobineau was one of the earliest proponents of the theory of Aryan racial superiority and supremacy. In his major work, The Inequality of Human Races, he methodically unveiled the cultural and physical characteristics which separated the three major racial groupings (black, yellow and white). Significantly, he attributed these differences to innately unequal abilities among the races * * * We come now to the white peoples. These are gifted with reflective energy, or rather with an energetic intelligence. They have a feeling for utility, but in a sense far wider and higher, more courageous and ideal, than the yellow races; a perseverance that takes account of obstacles and ultimately finds a means of overcoming them; a greater physical power, an extraordinary instinct for order, not merely as a guarantee of peace and tranquility, but as an indispensable means of self-preservation. At the same time, they have a remarkable, and even

extreme, love of liberty, and are openly hostile to the formalism under which the Chinese are glad to vegetate, as well as to the strict despotism which is the only way of governing the negro. The white races are, further, distinguished by an extraordinary attachment to life. They know better how to use it, and so, as it would seem, set a greater price on it; both in their own persons and those of others, they are more sparing of life. When they are cruel, they are conscious of their cruelty; it is very doubtful whether such a consciousness exists in the negro. At the same time, they have discovered reasons why they should surrender this busy life of theirs, that is so precious to them. The principal motive is honour, which under various names has played an enormous part in the ideas of the race from the beginning. I need hardly add that the word honour, together with all the civilizing influences connoted by it, is unknown to both the yellow and the black man The White Race Such is the lesson of history. It shows us that all civilizations derive from the white race, that none can exist without its help, and that a society is great and brilliant only so far as it preserves the blood of the noble group that created it, provided that this group itself belongs to the most illustrious branch of our species.

Joseph Arthur comte de Gobineau, The White Race is Superior Questions: 1. In what ways does the author believe the white race differs from other races? (from reading, p. 207)

2. Why do the characteristics of the white race make them superior to other races?

3. How does this selection connect to social Darwinism? What elements of Darwins theory are present in this reading?

The Anglo-Saxon Race Should Colonize the World by Josiah Strong

Directions: Read the following excerpt and answer the attached questions.

A clergyman, social reformer, and author, Josiah Strong (1847-1916) was one of the most influential Americans of his day. In 1885 he published his most famous work, Our Country, which helped buoy him to national prominence. Strong was convinced that the AngloSaxon race had reached it zenith in the United States and would one day civilize and Christianize the entire world
* * * Every race which has deeply impressed itself on the human family has been the representative of some great idea one or more which has given direction to the nations life and form to its civilizationThe Anglo-Saxon is the representative of two great ideas, which are closely related. One of them is that of civil liberty. Nearly all the civil liberty of the world is enjoyed by Anglo-Saxons: The English, the British colonists, and the people of the United StatesThe noblest races have always been lovers of liberty. The love ran strong in early German blood, and has profoundly influenced the institutions of all the branches of the great German family; but it was left for the Anglo-Saxon branch fully to recognize the right of the individual to himself, and formally to declare it the foundation stone of government. The other great idea of which the Anglo-Saxon is the exponent is that of a pure spiritual Christianity. It was no accident that the great reformation of the sixteenth century originated among a Teutonic, rather than a Latin people Again, another marked characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon is what may be called an instinct or genius for colonizing. His unequaled energy, his indomitable perseverance, and his personal independence, made him a pioneer. He excels all others in pushing his way into new countries. It was those in whom this tendency was strongest that came to America, and this inherited tendency has been further developed by the westward sweep of successive generations across the continent. So noticeable has this characteristic become that English visitors remark

it. Charles Dickens once said that the typical American would hesitate to enter heaven unless assure that he could go farther west. Again, nothing more manifestly distinguishes the Anglo-Saxon than his intense and persistent energy, and he is developing in the United States an energy which in eager activity and effectiveness is peculiarly American United States: Gibraltar of the Ages In my own mind, there is no doubt that the Anglo-Saxon is to exercise the commanding influence in the worlds future, but the exact nature of that influence is, as yet, undetermined. How far his civilization will be materialistic and atheistic, and how long it will take thoroughly to Christianize and sweeten it, how rapidly he will hasten the coming of the kingdom wherein dwelleth righteousness, or how many ages he may retard it, is still uncertain; but is now being swiftly determined. Let us weld together in a chain the various links of our logic which we have endeavored to forge. Is it manifest that the Anglo-Saxon holds in his hands the destinies of mankind for ages to come? Is it evident that the United States is to be the home of this race, the principal seat of his power, the great center of his influence?... Notwithstanding the great perils which threaten it, I cannot think our civilization will perish; but I believe it is fully in the hands of the Christians of the United States, during the next ten or fifteen years, to hasten or retard the coming of Christs kingdom in the world by hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of years. We of this generation and nation occupy the Gibraltar of the ages which commands the worlds future.

Josiah Strong, The Anglo-Saxon Race Should Colonize the World Questions: 1. According to Josiah Strong, what are the noblest races? (from reading p. 31)

2. How does Strong primarily formulate his argument? What type of society does he think that Anglo-Saxons would create if they took control?

3. How does this selection connect to social Darwinism? What elements of Darwins theory are present in this reading?

Inferior by Nature: The Idea o Scientific Racism: Questions: 1. Why do you think it was important for 19th century Europeans to justify racism and imperialism through science?

2. In what ways could scientific racism be used to justify imperialism?

3. How does this selection connect to social Darwinism? What elements of Darwins theory are present in this reading?