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Darwinian Racism: The Author Webinar, Pt. 1

Series
ID the Future
Host
John G. West
Guest
Richard Weikart and John G. West
Duration
00:29:28
Download
Audio File (15.8MB)

Today’s ID the Future is part one of a recent webinar featuring Darwinian Racism author and noted historian Richard Weikart, discussing his new book with webinar host and Center for Science and Culture managing director John West. Weikart and West begin by discussing Whoopi Goldberg’s recent claim that the Jewish Holocaust under Nazi Germany was not racist. Yes it was, explains Weikart. Hitler and the Nazis believed that the Nordic or Aryan Europeans, which included Germans, were a superior race, and they viewed Jews, blacks, Slavs, and other races as inferior. Worse, Hitler and other Nazis drew upon Darwin’s theory of evolution, and in particular ideas laid out in Darwin’s The Descent of Man, as well as the work of prominent early Darwinists, to justify the Germans waging race war against the Jews and other races. Weikart says that his new book also shows why the claim that Hitler and the Nazis rejected Darwinism is manifestly false, as is the claim that Hitler was a biblical creationist. Far from it, Weikart insists. Nature was Hitler’s god, and his might-is-right ethic was drawn explicitly from Darwinian principles. Weikart then moves into a discussion of Neo-Nazis, contemporary white nationalists, and what is sometimes referred to as the Alt Right, groups that are the focus of his new book’s final chapter. There he lays out multiple lines of evidence that they too draw their racist ideas directly from the writings of Darwin and early Darwinists. Weikart is Emeritus Professor of History at California State University, Stanislaus. His new book is Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism. Check out the endorsements from historians, and get your copy, here.

Richard Weikart

Senior Fellow, Center for Science and Culture
Richard Weikart is Emeritus Professor of History, California State University, Stanislaus, and author of seven books, including From Darwin to Hitler, Hitler’s Ethic, The Death of Humanity, and Hitler’s Religion. His most recent book is Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism (2022). His PhD dissertation, Socialist Darwinism, earned the biennial prize of the Forum for History of Human Sciences as best dissertation in that field. He has lectured at many universities and other venues in the US and Europe. He also has been interviewed on dozens of radio shows, podcasts, and TV, and appeared in seven documentaries, including Expelled. Some of his lectures and interviews are available on YouTube.

John G. West

Senior Fellow, Managing Director, and Vice President of Discovery Institute
Dr. John G. West is Vice President of the Seattle-based Discovery Institute and Managing Director of the Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. Formerly the Chair of the Department of Political Science and Geography at Seattle Pacific University, West is an award-winning author and documentary filmmaker who has written or edited 12 books, including Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science, The Magician’s Twin: C. S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society, and Walt Disney and Live Action: The Disney Studio’s Live-Action Features of the 1950s and 60s. His documentary films include Fire-Maker, Revolutionary, The War on Humans, and (most recently) Human Zoos. West holds a PhD in Government from Claremont Graduate University, and he has been interviewed by media outlets such as CNN, Fox News, Reuters, Time magazine, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post.