3) What is social Darwinism?(Ch 18, Bowler and Morus)
4) Do you agree that there are close parallels between social Darwinism and capitalism? Give reasons for your answer. (Ch 18, Bowler and Morus)
5) Explain how social Darwinism was used to justify imperialism in Europe before and during WW2. (Ch 18, Bowler and Morus)
6) Summarise Galton’s arguments for restricting the reproduction of the ‘unfit’ in his 1869 book Hereditary Genius (Ch 18, Bowler and Morus)
7) Look at Figure 18.4 in Ch 18, Bowler and Morus. Write a paragraph or two exploring your emotional reactions to this diagram.
8) What was Die Deutsche Physik and what effect do you think it had on the progress of the physical sciences in Nazi Germany? ( Ch 6 ‘The Political Corruption of Science’ by John Grant)
9) Hitler justified his regime’s eugenic excesses by arguing that “the right to personal freedom always gives way to the duty of preserving the race.’ Why were the Nazis so obsessed with racial purity? (Michael Burleigh reading)
11) Some individuals and institutions did try and resist the worst examples of Nazi eugenics. Give TWO examples of such resistance. (Michael Burleigh reading)
12) “We live in an era of the ultimate conflict with Christianity. It is part of the mission of the SS to give the German people in the next half-century the non-Christian ideological foundations on which to lead and shape their lives.” (Himmler, 1937. Quoted in Longerich’s ‘Himmler’, Ch 10 ‘Ideology and Religious Cult’, p. 270). Why was Himmler so anti-Christianity, and what did he hope to replace Christianity with? (Longerich’s Himmler)