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The Resource Superior : the return of race science, Angela Saini

Superior : the return of race science, Angela Saini

Creator
Author
Summary
  • "A powerful look at the non-scientific history of "race science," and the assumptions, prejudices, and incentives that have allowed it to reemerge in contemporary science Superior tells the disturbing story of the persistent thread of belief in biological racial differences in the world of science. After the horrors of the Nazi regime in WWII, the mainstream scientific world turned its back on eugenics and the study of racial difference. But a worldwide network of unrepentant eugenicists quietly founded journals and funded research, providing the kind of shoddy studies that were ultimately cited in Richard Hernstein's and Charles Murray's 1994 title, The Bell Curve, which purported to show differences in intelligence among races. If the vast majority of scientists and scholars disavowed these ideas, and considered race a social construct, it was still an idea that managed to somehow make its way into the research into the human genome that began in earnest in the mid-1990s and continues today. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists studying human biodiversity, most of whom claim to be just following the data, Saini shows us how, again and again, science is retrofitted to accommodate race. Even as our understanding of highly complex traits like intelligence, and the complicated effect of environmental influences on human beings, from the molecular level on up, grows, the hope of finding simple genetic differences between "races"--to explain differing rates of disease, to explain poverty or test scores or to justify cultural assumptions--stubbornly persists. At a time when racialized nationalisms are a resurgent threat throughout the world, Superior is a powerful reminder that biologically, we are all far more alike than different"--
  • "In Superior award-winning science writer Angela Saini explores the concept of race, past and present. She examines the dark roots of race research and how race has again crept gently back into science and medicine. And she investigates the people who use this research for their own political purposes, including white supremacists. They believe that populations are born different, in character and intellectually, and that this defines the success or failure of nations. It is a worldwide network of eugenicists with their own journals journals and sources of funding, providing the kind of shoddy studies that were ultimately cited in Richard Hernstein's and Charles Murray's 1994 title, The Bell Curve, which purported to show differences in intelligence among races. Taking us from Darwin through the civil rights movement to modern-day ancestry testing, Saini examines how deeply our present is influenced by our past, and the role that politics has so often had to play in our understanding of race. Superior is a powerful, rigorous, much needed examination of the insidious history and damaging consequences of race science and the unfortunate reasons behind its apparent recent resurgence across the globe"--
  • After the horrors of the Nazi regime in WWII, the mainstream scientific world turned its back on eugenics and the study of racial difference. But a worldwide network of unrepentant eugenicists quietly founded journals and funded research purporting to show differences in intelligence among races. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists studying human biodiversity, Saini shows us how science is retrofitted to accommodate race. At a time when racialized nationalisms are a resurgent threat throughout the world, she presents a powerful reminder that biologically, we are all far more alike than different. -- adapted from jacket
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xiv, 242 pages
Note
Source of cataloging data: WCP
Contents
  • Prologue
  • Deep time
  • It's a small world
  • Scientific priestcraft
  • Inside the fold
  • Race realists
  • Human biodiversity
  • Roots
  • Origin stories
  • Caste
  • The illusionists
  • Black pills
  • Afterword
Isbn
9780807076910
Instance
Label
Superior : the return of race science
Title
Superior
Title remainder
the return of race science
Statement of responsibility
Angela Saini
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
  • "A powerful look at the non-scientific history of "race science," and the assumptions, prejudices, and incentives that have allowed it to reemerge in contemporary science Superior tells the disturbing story of the persistent thread of belief in biological racial differences in the world of science. After the horrors of the Nazi regime in WWII, the mainstream scientific world turned its back on eugenics and the study of racial difference. But a worldwide network of unrepentant eugenicists quietly founded journals and funded research, providing the kind of shoddy studies that were ultimately cited in Richard Hernstein's and Charles Murray's 1994 title, The Bell Curve, which purported to show differences in intelligence among races. If the vast majority of scientists and scholars disavowed these ideas, and considered race a social construct, it was still an idea that managed to somehow make its way into the research into the human genome that began in earnest in the mid-1990s and continues today. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists studying human biodiversity, most of whom claim to be just following the data, Saini shows us how, again and again, science is retrofitted to accommodate race. Even as our understanding of highly complex traits like intelligence, and the complicated effect of environmental influences on human beings, from the molecular level on up, grows, the hope of finding simple genetic differences between "races"--to explain differing rates of disease, to explain poverty or test scores or to justify cultural assumptions--stubbornly persists. At a time when racialized nationalisms are a resurgent threat throughout the world, Superior is a powerful reminder that biologically, we are all far more alike than different"--
  • "In Superior award-winning science writer Angela Saini explores the concept of race, past and present. She examines the dark roots of race research and how race has again crept gently back into science and medicine. And she investigates the people who use this research for their own political purposes, including white supremacists. They believe that populations are born different, in character and intellectually, and that this defines the success or failure of nations. It is a worldwide network of eugenicists with their own journals journals and sources of funding, providing the kind of shoddy studies that were ultimately cited in Richard Hernstein's and Charles Murray's 1994 title, The Bell Curve, which purported to show differences in intelligence among races. Taking us from Darwin through the civil rights movement to modern-day ancestry testing, Saini examines how deeply our present is influenced by our past, and the role that politics has so often had to play in our understanding of race. Superior is a powerful, rigorous, much needed examination of the insidious history and damaging consequences of race science and the unfortunate reasons behind its apparent recent resurgence across the globe"--
  • After the horrors of the Nazi regime in WWII, the mainstream scientific world turned its back on eugenics and the study of racial difference. But a worldwide network of unrepentant eugenicists quietly founded journals and funded research purporting to show differences in intelligence among races. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists studying human biodiversity, Saini shows us how science is retrofitted to accommodate race. At a time when racialized nationalisms are a resurgent threat throughout the world, she presents a powerful reminder that biologically, we are all far more alike than different. -- adapted from jacket
Assigning source
  • Provided by publisher
  • Provided by publisher
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1980-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Saini, Angela
Dewey number
305.8/00723
Index
index present
LC call number
HT1506
LC item number
.S25 2019
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Race
  • Eugenics
Label
Superior : the return of race science, Angela Saini
Instantiates
Publication
Note
Source of cataloging data: WCP
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Prologue -- Deep time -- It's a small world -- Scientific priestcraft -- Inside the fold -- Race realists -- Human biodiversity -- Roots -- Origin stories -- Caste -- The illusionists -- Black pills -- Afterword
Control code
on1091260230
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
xiv, 242 pages
Isbn
9780807076910
Lccn
2018060780
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
(OCoLC)1091260230
Label
Superior : the return of race science, Angela Saini
Publication
Note
Source of cataloging data: WCP
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Prologue -- Deep time -- It's a small world -- Scientific priestcraft -- Inside the fold -- Race realists -- Human biodiversity -- Roots -- Origin stories -- Caste -- The illusionists -- Black pills -- Afterword
Control code
on1091260230
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
xiv, 242 pages
Isbn
9780807076910
Lccn
2018060780
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
(OCoLC)1091260230

Subject

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