Social Darwinism, Eugenics, and Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things

Many of you are familiar with the idea of social class. There is, of course, the idea of social class as portrayed in popular culture. Social class has been around since time immemorial -- the Romans, for instance, had a class system, and the current incarnation of the Wikipedia page on this topic renders it well.

One of the classic traits of the Gilded Age was the pseudo-science of Social Darwinism.
It was used to justify institutional racism, but it's primary purpose was to rationalize the status of the ruling elite in economic terms.