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| Banquet at Delmonico's: Great Minds, the Gilded Age, and the Triumph of Evolution in America |  | Author: Barry Werth
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
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Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 157,491
Format: Deckle Edge
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1St Edition
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.7 x 6.6 x 1
ISBN: 1400067782
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.4097309034
EAN: 9781400067787
ASIN: 1400067782
Publication Date: January 6, 2009
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, January 2009: Banquet at Delmonico's is a fascinating look at how the theory of evolution provided a much-needed challenge to 19th-century America. Although evolution itself was hardly a new concept--scholars had pondered transmutation and common descent for centuries--naturalist Charles Darwin ignited an intellectual bonfire during the 1860s with his hypothesis of natural selection. Author Barry Werth explains how the uproar reached far beyond the scientific community, as evolutionary ideas such as "survival of the fittest" (a phrase coined not by Darwin, but by English philosopher Herbert Spencer) became rallying cries for leaders in business, theology, and government. Steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie gushed that "light came as in a flood and all was clear" while reading the works of Darwin and Spencer, while preacher Henry Ward Beecher embraced his role as a "Christian evolutionist." With post-Civil War America growing increasingly uneasy over irreconcilable differences between the modern world and old truths of theology, Werth thoughtfully explores how a bold leap into a new school of thought rejuvenated a weary nation. - Dave Callanan
Product Description
In Banquet at Delmonico’s, Barry Werth, the acclaimed author of The Scarlet Professor, draws readers inside the circle of philosophers, scientists, politicians, businessmen, clergymen, and scholars who brought Charles Darwin’s controversial ideas to America in the crucial years after the Civil War.
The United States in the 1870s and ’80s was deep in turmoil–a brash young nation torn by a great depression, mired in scandal and corruption, rocked by crises in government, violently conflicted over science and race, and fired up by spiritual and sexual upheavals. Secularism was rising, most notably in academia. Evolution–and its catchphrase, “survival of the fittest”–animated and guided this Gilded Age.
Darwin’s theory of natural selection was extended to society and morals not by Darwin himself but by the English philosopher Herbert Spencer, father of “the Law of Equal Freedom,” which holds that “every man is free to do that which he wills,” provided it doesn’t infringe on the equal freedom of others. As this justification took root as a social, economic, and ethical doctrine, Spencer won numerous influential American disciples and allies, including industrialist Andrew Carnegie, clergyman Henry Ward Beecher, and political reformer Carl Schurz. Churches, campuses, and newspapers convulsed with debate over the proper role of government in regulating Americans’ behavior, this country’s place among nations, and, most explosively, the question of God’s existence.
In late 1882, most of the main figures who brought about and popularized these developments gathered at Delmonico’s, New York’s most venerable restaurant, in an exclusive farewell dinner to honor Spencer and to toast the social applications of the theory of evolution. It was a historic celebration from which the repercussions still ripple throughout our society.
Banquet at Delmonico’s is social history at its finest, richest, and most appetizing, a brilliant narrative bristling with personal intrigue, tantalizing insights, and greater truths about American life and culture.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
 Social Darwinism on the Menu February 2, 2009
Izaak VanGaalen (San Francisco, CA USA)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
On November 8, 1882, many of America's elite in the field's of politics, business, and science gathered in Delmonico's banquet room in New York City to celebrate the triumph of Social Darwinism. The theory was deemed "the greatest conception of modern times, if not, indeed, all time." The banquet was in honor of Herbert Spencer, the theory's most well-known advocate. It was the culmination of Spencer's three-month visit to America, a country that was very receptive to his ideas.
Barry Werth begins his story a decade prior to the banquet and focuses mainly on the rivalry between the ideas of Charles Darwin, the naturalist, and Spencer, the philosopher. Although Spencer had initially published work on social development, it was Darwin's publication of The Origin of the Species that popularized the idea of natural selection and evolution. Darwin, being empirically minded, confined his theory to the biological world. He believed that one could only have knowledge of that which could be observed. Spencer, on the other hand, applied the theory of evolution to all manner of things, not only to the social realm, but all areas of human activity. Spencer was more given to sweeping generalizations than the painstaking research practiced by Darwin.
It is not difficult to see why Spencer's speculations found fertile ground in America: the country was emerging from the rubble of the Civil War and rapidly becoming a world power. It's new self-image was that it was a prime example of "the survival of the fittest" - a phrase coined by Spencer. In Spencer's cosmology it meant that the strongest and the most righteous ultimately prevailed.
The characters that animate Werth's chronicle of this period were mostly on the side of Spencer, and they illustrate the incredible versatility of the theory of evolution. Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate, believed firmly in Spencerian competition and progress, as well as his own superiority in its outcome. William Graham Sumner, the famous Yale sociologist, declared social welfare programs useless since, in his view, the needy will always be needy no matter how much assistance they receive.
Spencer, surpisingly, also had followers in the church. Henry Ward Beecher, who was arguably the most popular minister in America in his day, was famous for reconciling evolution with Christianity. His reasoning went something as follows: not only did God create all things, His wisdom was so great that He made all things create themselves. How many people actually believed that remains a mystery.
Werth's story is a very entertaining and informative work of intellectual history, but we are left wondering, in the end, how much of the theory of evolution was actually accepted by the population beyond Delmonico's banquet room. Although Spencerism was triumphant among some of the elites, a majority of the population probably still believed that God created all things the old-fashioned way.
Today, Darwin's more scientific approach is favored and Spencer's philosophy has largely been discredited, as his theories were used to support racism and eugenics. Even so, Darwin's theory must still compete with today's proponents of "intelligent design" - a good indicator that not much progress has been made and that the fittest theory is still struggling for survival.
How Social Darwinism Came to America February 3, 2009
R. Hardy (Columbus, Mississippi USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
When Darwin's _On the Origin of Species_ was published in 1859, it revolutionized our entire way of understanding biology. Darwin's further writing about human descent applied this understanding to our own species. Darwin's principles are pretty easy to understand; his supporter Thomas Henry Huxley berated himself for being so stupid as not to have seen them himself. They are not only simple, they can be applied as comparisons in all sorts of non-biological realms. They can also be misapplied: anyone who champions "survival of the fittest" may thereby seek excuse for any step toward making his own self and his own group survive. "Survival of the fittest" isn't a phrase Darwin used. It was coined by Herbert Spencer, a British philosopher, who in 1882 was given a lavish dinner in New York by many of his American supporters. _Banquet at Delmonico's: Great Minds, the Gilded Age, and the Triumph of Evolution in America_ (Random House) by Barry Werth tells the story of that dinner and the personalities involved in bringing evolution to America in the form of Social Darwinism. Werth brought his skills of exposition of character to a biography of Newton Arvin years ago, and in this book has the opportunity to scrutinize the philosophers, biologists, politicians, entrepreneurs, and churchmen who played a role in supporting the now discredited concept of Social Darwinism. With the current celebration of Darwin anniversaries, Werth's book provides an amusing and instructive history of a philosophy that was the foundation of the Industrial Age in the nineteenth century.
It has to be remembered that Darwin himself did not expand his ideas about evolution beyond his own biological sphere. As a naturalist, he regarded evolution as morally neutral, just as gravity or climate is. Werth rightly points out that Social Darwinism ought better to be regarded as "Spencerism". Spencer thought evolutionary change was not neutral, but was a progressive force that would ensure that in a free marketplace the fittest would become rich and that the survival of these fittest would ensure the improvement of the human race. Spencer opposed expanding the government to help the welfare of its citizens, because that would thwart evolution's weeding out the unfit. Political economist William Graham Sumner wrote that social inequality was the law of nature, a law that would be immune to governmental reform. He wrote that "a drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be." The most famous preacher of the age, Henry Ward Beecher, said it was inevitable that the poor had to "reap the misfortunes of inferiority." The thinkers and their ideas bump through most of the book covering a period of eleven years, with the final chapter largely devoted to the banquet itself, a banquet organized by Spencer's biggest American booster, Edward Youmans. When it came time for Spencer to address the admiring crowd, he spoke about how humans were evolving from being militant to being industrialists, and how society must keep from degrading itself, and America's role in helping its leading race to continue to advance; and then he baffled the audience by explaining that Americans were working too hard and didn't know how to relax.
In an epilogue, Werth catches us up on what happened to the main participants in the years after the banquet. Spencer began to realize that evolution might be inevitable, but also that humanity was emphasizing nationalism and munitions rather than evolving toward a state-free utopia. He and Youmans fell out and didn't reconcile before Youmans died five years after the banquet. Beecher spent the rest of his life excoriating "this whole theory of sin and its origin that lies at the base of the great evangelical systems of Christianity." Sumner outlived most of the others here, long enough to see the skimpy and self-serving politics he advocated fade as a progressive reform movement and the philosophical school of pragmatism took over while Social Darwinism declined. Evolution never lost power in its natural setting of biological understanding, but citing evolution as an excuse for those in power ruthlessly to stay in power eventually became unacceptable. Werth's entertaining book is thus a look at the thinking of a bunch of smart guys who latched onto a wrong idea, and patted themselves on their backs in congratulation for their own cleverness.
Herbert Spencer Turned Loose on Gilded-Age America February 13, 2009
Ronald H. Clark (WASHINGTON, DC USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In this bicentennial year of Charles Darwin, it is most appropriate to consider how Darwinism was disseminated in America during the late 19th century. This book takes its title from a testimonial dinner held for Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) in 1882 at New York's famous Delmonico's restaurant. In attendance to honor Spencer were many of the leading American minds who had helped spead the message of evolution, either individually or in conjunction with Spencer. We are talking about folks like Asa Gray at Harvard, John Fiske, William Graham Sumner, Carnegie, Huxley, McCosh, Henry Ward Beecher, and O.C. Marsh to name just a few of this elite company. To set the stage, the author returns to 1871, and in individual chapters devoted to each intervening year, eventually devotes the final chapter to the dinner itself in 1882.
There is a lot of valuable information and discussion contained in the book, but it also has some design drawbacks. For one thing, the author spends a lot of time on folks who really are not evolutionists in the sense of the other subjects--namely Andrew Carnegie and especially Henry Ward Beecher ("the most famous man in America). I did not see how discussing Beecher's numerous adulterous problems contributed to the narrative, and he is probably second only to Spencer in the amount of space devoted to his activites. A second problem is that by breaking up the narrative as to each individual into bits and pieces scattered throughout various of the years between 1871 and 1882, makes it harder on the reader to comprehensively integrate their various contributions. Perhaps chapters designated by individual or subject matter might have avoided this problem. I was also skeptical that Spencer was that central a figure in America--but the skillful discussion by the author convinced me otherwise.
Despite these rough spots, this book lays out comprehensive coverage of its topic and is quite informative. It also introduces some folks who are not famous, yet played critical roles. For example, the Yale paleontologist O.C. Marsh devoted his life and money to digging out bones all over the West and facilitating their study. Another example is Edward Livingston Youmans, who incessantly publicized and published Spencer (in his "International Scientific Series"). The author also gives the opponents of evolution their due as well: Louis Agassiz and Charles Hodge are the two principal examples. Particularly the chapter devoted to the dinner itself is well done, and I almost felt as if I had attended. So, the book quite won me over despite the structural problems noted above. The author supports his text with an eight-page bibliography and 20 pages of informative notes. For anyone interested in Gilden Age intellectual history, this book is a must read.
Feast of Intellect March 2, 2009
Retired Reader (New Mexico)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This altogether excellent book is really a chronicle of how the concept of evolution as expounded by Charles Darwin was embraced by an influential number of American intellectuals. And how its corollary, social evolution (or `social Darwinism') became the philosophical pillar of American industrial capitalism. The title of the book refers to a lavish banquet given in 1882 by a combination of capitalists, politicians, and intellectuals in honor of the English thinker Herbert Spencer, one of the most effective advocates of social Darwinism. The book reviews essentially the decade prior to this banquet to describe the impact that evolutionary theories had on American thought and to identify some of the most influential supporters (and opponents) of the biological and social theories of evolution..
Not surprisingly social evolution was much more widely accepted than was biological evolution. Its nonsensical arguments for superior and degenerate `races' and individuals, fit very well with the then existing prejudices and the still prevalent Calvinist theology of the saved and the damned. Then as now biological evolution, especially after Darwin finally screwed up the courage to publish the "Descent of Man", was seen as a threat to religion and man's place in the world. For every American advocate of biological evolution there were equally erudite advocates for intelligent design or creationism. It is ironic that the most dubious argument in evolutionary theory namely social evolution was and is the least controversial then and now.
Be that as it may this book provides an introduction to some really interesting American and English originals who did a good deal to enhance intellectual life in both the U.S. and UK.
Great thread-connecting social history February 24, 2010
Stephen J. Snyder (Lancaster, Texas United States)
Especially without the knowledge of genes, or even a germ-cell based theoretical development in the theory of evolution, it was easy for Darwinism to develop the massive appendage of social Darwinism. Especially when, although rejecting the idea of multiple human species, Darwin himself accepted many of Herbert Spencer's ideas of social Darwinism.
Spencer's ideas justified laissez-faire economics (conveniently overlooking high tariffs!), the Gilded Age, social inequality and more. So, it became manna to the GOP in America. At the same time, because of its scientific cachet, in a post-Civil War America seeking to build its scientific reputation, latching on to Spencer and his ideas became the focus of American biologists, sociologists (an idea invented by Spencer) and psychologists.
Werth brings leading lights of these areas together, tracing their development and intersection across the Gilded Age, peaking in a dinner banquet for Spencer at the famed Delmonico's.
Per one reviewer, it's a bit true that Werth doesn't flesh out social Darwinism as much as he perhaps could. But, I don't think that's a serious drawback. He does well enough, while presuming a basic reader's knowledge.
Otherwise, this is a good overview of a major period in American history. It has an overview's limits, too, but is a good appetite-whetter.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
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