William Sumner, Skull & Bones member, and Social Darwinist, seems to deserve some credit. He's said to have been "instrumental in reforming the American university system", and he was an advocate for the robber barons as well.

More Sumner
Sumner vs. Noah Porter
Edit: Better Sumner vs. Porter

A surprising reinterpretation of Spencer - everyone else got him wrong, apparently.
fanboy page - some links to writings of Spencer, Sumner, & their kind.
Objectivism is or isn't Social Darwinism. Spencer vs. Sumner, anyone?

*** From what I gather on the "better" link I provided, Sumner seems to be the first "conversion" I've found. Oddly, it wasn't Darwin's biological work that seems to be the cause, but the attraction of Social Darwinism. How does one score that?

Last edited by CTD; 04/06/08 04:33 AM.
Dark Matter + Dark Energy = Dark Truth

"We find that such evidence demonstrates that the ID argument is dependent upon setting a scientifically unreasonable burden of proof for the theory of evolution." - Judge Jones Kitzmiller case
http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Falsify.cfm

"To Compel A Man To Furnish Funds For The Propagation Of Ideas He Disbelieves And Abhors Is Sinful And Tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson

"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?" - Thomas Jefferson