The purpose of this article is to elucidate the influence that the fin-desi？cle American version of reform social Darwinism had on the thought of Yu Kil-chun (1856-1914), a prominent reformist thinker and statesman in late Chosun dynasty. We argue that Yu"s unique combination of evolutionism and statism cannot be properly accounted for apart from his education in America, although brief, during the decade when laissezfaire, conservative Darwinism was being rapidly displaced by the reform social Darwinism. We also argue that this American influence had an enduring impact on Yu"s thought as one can see in his civic educational projects of his later years, which were unmistakably reflective of a distinctively American symbiosis of self-reliant bourgeoisie and public spirited citizenship.
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