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Nietzsche (the Darwinian idea of the Superman evokes breeding): *
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883), Zarathustra first announces the Übermensch as a goal humanity can set for itself. All human life would be given meaning by how it advanced a new generation of human beings. The aspiration of a woman would be to give birth to an Übermensch, for example; her relationships with men would be judged by this standard.
“Let the beam of a star shine in your love! Let your hope say: “May I bear the Superman!”
(extract from Thus Spoke Zarathustra , XVIII. Old and Young Women.)
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Malthus (and the Lancashire cotton industry): *
Spengler is most likely conflating Malthus with Engels, the right hand man of Marx. Engels did in fact study the cotton industry of Lancashire. His work The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845) is a direct result of his research. It was written during his stay in Manchester (1842–44 ), the city at the heart of the Industrial Revolution & based on his own observations and detailed contemporary reports of cotton mills.