Ethnocentric ideas which vaunted the perceived racial superiority of certain groups (most typically white Europeans) increased in currency towards the end of the 19th century and ultimately reinforced those inter-imperialist rivalries which led to the great and wasteful conflagration known as the First World War. The rising influence of Darwinist thinking as applied to the social field obviously fed into and increased pre-existing chauvinisms particularly when the great powers were engaged in direct...