A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History Second Printing Edition
Author: Visit ‘s Nicholas Wade Page ID: 1594204462
Review
“It is hard to convey how rich this book is….The book is a delight to read—conversational and lucid. And it will trigger an intellectual explosion the likes of which we haven’t seen for a few decades….At the heart of the book, stated quietly but with command of the technical literature, is a bombshell….So one way or another, A Troublesome Inheritance will be historic. Its proper reception would mean enduring fame.”
Publishers Weekly: “Wade ventures into territory eschewed by most writers: the evolutionary basis for racial differences across human populations. He argues persuasively that such differences exist… His conclusion is both straightforward and provocative…He makes the case that human evolution is ongoing and that genes can influence, but do not fully control, a variety of behaviors that underpin differing forms of social institutions. Wade’s work is certain to generate a great deal of attention.”
Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University:
“Nicholas Wade combines the virtues of truth without fear and the celebration of genetic diversity as a strength of humanity, thereby creating a forum appropriate to the twenty-first century.”
About the Author
Nicholas Wade received a BA in natural sciences from King’s College, Cambridge. He was the deputy editor of Nature magazine in London and then became that journal’s Washington correspondent. He joined Science magazine in Washington as a reporter and later moved to The New York Times, where he has been an editorial writer, concentrating on issues of defense, space, science, medicine, technology, genetics, molecular biology, the environment, and public policy, a science reporter, and a science editor.
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Hardcover: 288 pagesPublisher: Penguin Press; Second Printing edition (May 6, 2014)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 1594204462ISBN-13: 978-1594204463 Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Best Sellers Rank: #73,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #22 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Anthropology > Physical #79 in Books > Medical Books > Basic Sciences > Genetics #104 in Books > Textbooks > Social Sciences > Anthropology
In this book Nicholas Wade advances two simple premises: firstly, that we should stop looking only toward culture as a determinant of differences between populations and individuals, and secondly, that those who claim that any biological basis for race is fiction are ignoring increIDgly important findings from modern genetics and science. The guiding thread throughout the book is that "human evolution is recent, copious and regional" and that this has led to the genesis of distinct differences and classifications between human groups. What we do with this evidence should always be up for social debate, but the evidence itself cannot be ignored.
That is basically the gist of the book. It’s worth noting at the outset that at no point does Wade downplay the effects of culture and environment in dictating social, cognitive or behavioral differences – in fact he mentions culture as an important factor at least ten times by my count – but all he is saying is that, based on a variety of scientific studies enabled by the explosive recent growth of genomics and sequencing, we need to now recognize a strong genetic component to these differences.
The book can be roughly divided into three parts. The first part details the many horrific and unseemly uses that the concept of race has been put to by loathsome racists and elitists ranging from Social Darwinists to National Socialists. Wade reminds us that while these perpetrators had a fundamentally misguided, crackpot definition of race, that does not mean race does not exist in a modern incarnation.
A Troublesome Inheritance, by Nicholas Wade, should be read by anyone interested in race and recent human evolution. Wade deserves credit for challenging the popular dogma that biological differences between groups either don’t exist or cannot explain the relative success of different groups at different tasks. Wade’s work should be read alongside another recent book, The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution, by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending.
Together these books represent a major turning point in the public debate about the speed with which relatively isolated groups can evolve: both books suggest that small genetic differences between members of different groups can have large impacts on their abilities and propensities, which in turn affect the outcomes of the societies in which they live. Ever since the 1950s, Wade argues, many academics have denied the biological reality of race, and some have suggested that merely believing in racial differences constitutes a kind of racism (p. 69). But the rejection of race as a useful concept is often more of a political pose than a serious scientific claim, and it became especially popular among academics after the Second World War, during which Nazi pseudo-scientists used claims of racial superiority to justify mass murder.
As it turns out, Ashkenazi Jews – those from Russia, Poland, and Germany, who were nearly exterminated in the Holocaust – have been consistently found by intelligence researchers to have the highest IQ in the world.
A Troublesome Inheritance Genes Race and Human History A Troublesome Inheritance Genes Race and Human History and over one million other books are available for Amazon Race and Human History Second Printing EditionA Troublesome Inheritance Genes Race and Human History A Troublesome Inheritance Genes Race and Human History Click to enlarge Author Nicholas Wade Detail Of A Troublesome Inheritance Genes Race and Human A Troublesome Inheritance Genes Race and Human History TITLE A Troublesome Inheritance Genes Race and Human History AUTHOR Nicholas Wade RELEASE May 6 2014 HARDCOVER 288 pages PUBLISHER Penguin Press Second
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