Evolution And History

Suggested Readings 297

Suggested Readings

Cohen, M. N. (1998). Culture of intolerance: Chauvinism,
class, and racism in the United States. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press.

This very readable book summarizes what scientific data re-
ally say about biological differences among humans and ex-
poses questionable assumptions in U.S. culture that promote
intolerance and generate problems where none need exist.

Gould, S. J. (1996). The mismeasure of man (2nd ed.). New
York: Norton.

This is an update of a classic critique of supposedly scien-
tific studies that attempt to rank all people on a linear scale
of intrinsic and unalterable mental worth. The revision was
prompted by what Gould refers to as the “latest cyclic epi-
sode of biodeterminism” represented by the publication of
the widely discussed book, The Bell Curve.

Graves, J. L. (2001). The emperor’s new clothes: Biological the-
ories of race at the millennium. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press.

Graves, a laboratory geneticist, aims to show that there is no
biological basis for separation of human beings into races and
that the idea of race is a relatively recent social and political
construction. His grasp of science is solid and up-to-date.

Jacoby, R., & Glauberman, N. (Eds.). (1995). The Bell Curve
debate. New York: Random House.

This collection of articles by a wide variety of authors (bi-
ologists, anthropologists, psychologists, mathematicians,

essayists) critically examines the claims raised in The Bell

Curve. For anyone who hopes to understand the race and in-

telligence debate, this book is a must.

Marks, J. (1995). Human biodiversity: Genes, race, and his-

tory. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine.

In this book, Marks shows how genetics has undermined the

fundamental assumptions of racial taxonomy. In addition

to its presentation of the nature of human biodiversity, the

book also deals with the history of cultural attitudes toward

race and diversity.

Smedley, A. (1998). Race in North America: Origin and evo-

lution of a worldview. Boulder, CO: Westview.

Audrey Smedley traces the cultural invention of the idea of

race and how this false biological category has been used to

rationalize inequality in North America.

Wolpoff, M., & Caspari, R. (1997). Race and human evolu-

tion: A fatal attraction. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Along with providing an excellent history of the pseudosci-

ence of racial difference, this book is a detailed but readable

presentation of the multi regional hypothesis of modern hu-

man origins. Among its strengths is a discussion of the prob-

lem of defining what “anatomically modern” means.