The notion that intelligence is somehow related to race is a notoriously tenacious issue in America. Anthropologist Alexander Alland provides the most comprehensive overview of the recent history of research on race and IQ, offering critiques of the biological determinism of Carlton Coon, Arthur Jensen, Cyril Burt, Robert Ardrey, Konrad Lorenz, William Shockley, Michael Levin, and others. This reasoned, authoritative history also explains the basis of evolutionary genetics for the general reader, concluding that biologically, race cannot explain human variation. Written in a lively, conversational style, Alland imparts real, substantive scientific arguments, cuts through the ideological posturing and jargon that so often characterizes discussions about race, and shows us a more nuanced and scientifically valid way to understand the diversity that is the human condition.

About the Author
ALEXANDER ALLAND is the former Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University, USA. He is a Fellow of the American Anthropological Association, the Royal Anthropological Institute, Sigma Xi, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

Reviews

'...a concise and insightful commentary in the debate regarding nurture versus nature and the impact on intelligence.' - Booklist

'Racism is the longest lasting, most devastating chronic disease affecting Americans today. It has proven to be resistant to science, and to religion. In this elegant book Alex Alland explains the peculiar persistence of racism, and offers his own novel prescriptions for its eradication.' - Robert Pollack, Ph.D., Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Center for the Study of Science and Religion, Columbia University

'His thorough overview and his message...are valuable...' - V.J. Baker, Choice

'Racism is the longest lasting, most devastating chronic disease affecting

Americans today. It has proven to be resistant to science, and to religion. In this elegant book Alex Alland explains the peculiar persistance of racism, and offers is own novel prescriptions for its eradication.' - Robert Pollack, Ph.D., Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Center for the Study of Science and Religion, Columbia University, USA.

'It is salutary to be reminded, as we are in this book, of the horrors that have been committed in the name of misbegotten notions of race - which, in various forms, are very much alive today. from a broad anthropological viewpoint, Alex Alland provides us with a readable, closely argued, and convincing demolition of some of the more insidious recent incarnations of racism.' - Ian Tattersall, author of The Monkey in the Mirror: Essays on the Science of What Makes Us Human

'Professor Alland's book makes current work in sociobiology and evolutionary psychology accessible to non-specialists, including general as well as academic audiences. In clear, straightforward language, he moves comfortably between the pseudoscience of scientific racism and the moral responsibilities entailed by the more humanistic disciplines. The argument is firmly grounded in cultural as well as biological anthropology, moving from race (as a spurious biological category) to racism as a social construction. Each generation seems to face a resurgence of scientific racism against which resistance must be mounted. Professor Alland indeed has an axe to grind about the dangers of seeing race in mind as merely research, without human consequences - and he grinds it well. - Regna Darnell, Professor of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, Canada

'...a concise and insightful commentary in the debate regarding nurture versus nature and the impact on intelligence.' - Booklist

Book Information
ISBN 9780312238384
Author A. Alland
Format Hardback
Page Count 219
Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
Publisher Palgrave USA