Changes

It wasn't long before intellectuals viewed war as an essential evolutionary process.  ''Vom Heutigen Kriege'', a popular book by Geberal Bernhardi, "expounded the thesis that war was a biological necessity and a convenient means of ridding the world of the unfit.  These views were not confined to a lunatic fringe, but won wide acceptance especially among journalists, academics and politicians."<ref>Carr, William (October 1991). ''A History of Germany 1815-1990'' (London:  Bloomsbury), 4th ed., p. 205.</ref>  In America, Justice Holmes similarly wrote that "I always say that society is founded on the death of men - if you don't kill the weakest one way you kill them another."<ref>Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. (February 26, 1922).  "Letter to Sir Frederick Pollock".</ref>

It wasn't long before intellectuals viewed war as an essential evolutionary process.  ''Vom Heutigen Kriege'', a popular book by Geberal Bernhardi, "expounded the thesis that war was a biological necessity and a convenient means of ridding the world of the unfit.  These views were not confined to a lunatic fringe, but won wide acceptance especially among journalists, academics and politicians."<ref>Carr, William (October 1991). ''A History of Germany 1815-1990'' (London:  Bloomsbury), 4th ed., p. 205.</ref>  In America, Justice Holmes similarly wrote that "I always say that society is founded on the death of men - if you don't kill the weakest one way you kill them another."<ref>Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. (February 26, 1922).  "Letter to Sir Frederick Pollock".</ref>

World War I entailed a brutality unknown in the history of mankind.  Gregg Easterbrook, a senior editor of the liberal ''[[New Republic]]'' magazine, observed that "prior to the Scopes trial in 1925, [[William Jennings Bryan|William Jennings Bryan]] had been on a revival tour of Germany and had been horrified by the signs of incipient Nazism. Before this point, Bryan had been a moderate in the evolution debate; for instance, he had lobbied the Florida legislature not to ban the teaching of Darwin, only to specify that evolution must be taught as a theory rather than a fact. But after hearing the National Socialists talk about the elimination of genetic inferiority, [historian Gary] Wills wrote, Bryan came to feel that evolutionary ideas had become dangerous; he began both to oppose and to lampoon them."

World War I entailed a brutality unknown in the history of mankind.  Gregg Easterbrook, a senior editor of the liberal ''[[New Republic]]'' magazine, observed that "prior to the Scopes trial in 1925, [[William Jennings Bryan]] had been on a revival tour of Germany and had been horrified by the signs of incipient Nazism. Before this point, Bryan had been a moderate in the evolution debate; for instance, he had lobbied the Florida legislature not to ban the teaching of Darwin, only to specify that evolution must be taught as a theory rather than a fact. But after hearing the National Socialists talk about the elimination of genetic inferiority, [historian Gary] Wills wrote, Bryan came to feel that evolutionary ideas had become dangerous; he began both to oppose and to lampoon them."

   

   

The march of evolution/eugenics continued unabated in Germany.  By the 1920s, German textbooks were teaching evolution concepts of heredity and racial hygiene.  The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics was founded in 1927.

The march of evolution/eugenics continued unabated in Germany.  By the 1920s, German textbooks were teaching evolution concepts of heredity and racial hygiene.  The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics was founded in 1927.