Rethinking Classical Liberalism in 'Progressive' Times: The Divergent Sociologies of Spencer and Sumner

36 Pages Posted: 13 Aug 2009 Last revised: 26 Aug 2009

See all articles by Robert Adcock

Robert Adcock

American University - School of International Service

Date Written: 2009

Abstract

This paper explores classical liberal disillusionment via two figures: Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner. As self-avowed sociologists both made their theories of social change explicit, and thus offer an excellent opportunity to analyze how the disillusionment of classical liberalism was = like all shifts in nineteenth-century liberalism = intertwined with visions of the past, present, and future of social change. In comparing these figures I also suggest the limits of recurrent portrayals of Sumner as an American Spencerian. Crucial differences between Spencer and Sumner came to the fore in their responses to the late-nineteenth century. While reacting in light of a shared background in classical liberalism, each sociologist worked out the theoretical consequences of disillusionment in divergent ways. In his later works Spencer retained his initial mid-century confidence that the endpoint of progress is a social order with minimal government by postponing realization of this ideal to a more distant future and opening up the present as a target for cutting critique. Sumner by contrast put aside belief in progress as he forged a “science of society” from the perspective of which such a belief was only a myth unable, at the dawn of the twentieth century, even to claim the redeeming feature of being socially useful.

Keywords: Classical Liberalism, Progress, Herbert Spencer, William Graham Sumner

Suggested Citation

Adcock, Robert, Rethinking Classical Liberalism in 'Progressive' Times: The Divergent Sociologies of Spencer and Sumner (2009). APSA 2009 Toronto Meeting Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1448935

Robert Adcock (Contact Author)

American University - School of International Service ( email )

4400 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20016
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
75
Abstract Views
616
Rank
571,914
PlumX Metrics