“…In another case, the work of the evolutionist Herbert Spencer, usually depicted as the first ‘social Darwinist’, who championed libertarianism and free markets, could be taken as offering support for anarchism, socialism, and even Marxism. What interested these historians was not what the author intended, but how different audiences interpreted what was written (Beck 2005; Lightman 2015; Secord 2000; Winter 1997, 32). The same principle applies to elite scientists too.…”