1. Benjamin Kidd was a British sociologist whose first job was a civil service clerk, but by persistent self-education, he became internationally famous by the publication of his book Social Evolution in 1894.
19 Facts About Benjamin Kidd
1. 2.
Benjamin Kidd is reckoned as a founder of sociology as a discipline.
3.
However, the world was so different after the First World War that Benjamin Kidd's work became relegated to historical interest.
4.
In London, Benjamin Kidd's life was "frugal and solitary," but his ambition drove him to attend evening classes and to read incessantly.
5.
In 1887, Benjamin Kidd married Maud Emma Isabel Perry of Weston-Super-Mare.
6.
Benjamin Kidd spent his seventeen years as a clerk preparing for his mission.
7.
Benjamin Kidd's preparation began as reading books written by others.
8.
Royalties from the publication of his Social Evolution in 1894 allowed Benjamin Kidd to leave his job.
9.
Benjamin Kidd wrote Social Evolution with "self-confidence and conviction" that its content was of vast importance.
10.
Benjamin Kidd offered a faith that took into account and made use of these new discoveries.
11.
Benjamin Kidd ascribed Western civilization's "modern progress toward the equalization of the conditions of life" to the "immense fund of altruism" that had been generated by the Christian religion.
12.
Between 1894 and 1902, Benjamin Kidd traveled extensively in the United States and Canada, and in South Africa.
13.
Benjamin Kidd became acquainted with many important people in London in the circles of politics, science, and literature.
14.
Benjamin Kidd came into the Social Gospel movement when, during his to America, he met the leading clergymen of the movement including Washington Gladden, Lyman Abbott.
15.
Benjamin Kidd remained a "withdrawn personality" who was "ill at ease" in public.
16.
The ambiguity in Benjamin Kidd's writing was so pronounced that he was called a "Christian socialist" by some, but pro-business by others.
17.
From 1910 to 1914, Benjamin Kidd wrote The Science of Power.
18.
The Science of Power During the last six years of his life, when Benjamin Kidd was writing The Science of Power, the likelihood of a global conflict increased.
19.
However, looking at the period preceding World War I, Benjamin Kidd saw a "great pagan retrogression" exemplified by the German author Ernst Haeckel in The Riddle of the Universe, a retrogression that repudiated the Christian altruistic sanction of loving one's enemies.