Edward C. Rafferty has done an important service by writing this new intellectual biography of Lester Frank Ward, once known as the father of American Sociology. Rafferty presents the most comprehensive and balanced view of the life and work of this giant of American social thought of the late nineteenth and early-twentieth century that has appeared to date.

The Review of Politics

A thorough biographical portrait of the whole span of Ward's life with very fair-minded coverage and evaluation of his social thought. Rafferty's major contribution-even beyond his impressive thoroughness-is his placement of Ward in the context of Washington and government intellectuals. The ideas of the leading theorist of 'Reform Darwinism' are routinely referred to abstractly; Rafferty portrays the living struggles that went into the making of his influential theories.

Paul Jerome Croce, author of Science and Religion in the Era of William James