What are some things that Herbert Spencer has contributed to his field that are of historical significance?
Herbert Spencer was arguably the first libertarian. He advocated the Law of Equal Freedom (“each has freedom to do all that he wills provided that he infringes not the equal freedom of any other.”). He believed in equal rights for women and even for children. He was also a staunch opponent of militarism who in his later days detested the trend toward “re-barbarization” (his words) that was going to bring about a “coming slavery.” The history of the 20th century shows Spencer to have been a prophetic thinker. Spencer was also one of the founders of sociology. Spencer, however, is most famous for being viciously smeared by the Communist Party member Richard Hofstadter, in his slanderous book on “Social Darwinism” in which he conflates laissez-faire with the eugenics policies (of forced sterilization and selective breeding) that his beloved “Progressives” (and their more consistently “Progressive” brethren the National Socialist German Workers Party) advocated. Due to the fact that Hofsta
