What are your thoughts on him, especially since he has been tagged with the “Social Darwinist” label? From what I’ve read, he never justified laissez-faire through Social Darwinism, but simply compared human society with an organism, applying Darwinian elements of change to its evolution. I ask because I’m reading a book and the author(s) cannot shut up about Spencer-Social Darwinism-laissez faire. They even drag William Graham Sumner into it, who, unless I am mistaken, wrote little, if anything, about Social Darwinism? This all seems to be Richard Hofstadter’s fault.
Am I missing something?