Ebook: Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History

This book is very similar to Gould's "The Mismeasure of Man" except it attacks eugenics more straightforwardly and is even more shameless; just a series of lies and half-truths. But first, let me say that the eugenics movement at the turn of the century did have two fundamental stumbling blocks: a belief in simple Mendelian principles of heredity, and a belief in class and elitism. Until universal education finally took hold in only the last few decades, where bright students are encouraged to get advanced degrees, elitism or a sense of aristocracy and moral certitude was part culture. But culture changes. So this book, like Gould's, uses old arguments against new concepts that are no longer relevant.

What is even more strange however, is that almost every diatribe against understanding group differences and investigating why and how humans behave has now been turned around. At one time, like folk medicine, folk eugenics was in fact largely pseudoscience in that doctrine drove the science without adequate academic peer review or oversight. But now, the opposite is occurring. The radical egalitarians, those die-hard Marxists that reject science they do not like, are attacking academically reviewed work without providing any evidence to the contrary. This is how he describes pseudoscience, and it is in fact what this book is all about. Half-truths and accusations against behavior genetics and evolutionary psychology, fields that have now matured and are solidly in the mainstream. And social scientists? Still floundering around trying to make sense of failed programs and broken promises. They accuse institutional racism for poverty but they provide no proof or evidence. They claim that redistribution of wealth will make everyone equally smart without one study to show that this is possible. The Gouldian Marxists have now become the Pseudoscientists, fighting a rear-guard defense by making claims and accusations that are clearly incorrect.

This book was written in 1995, but it reads like it was written in 1970. The author has conveniently ignored all of the most recent research in human evolution, sociobiology, and differential psychology. It is as if, in order to make his claims seem credible, he had no way of addressing the scientific progress made the last thirty years. And just over the last five years the few caveats he may have had about such matters as the correlation of brain size to intelligence have been laid to rest. Numerous recent studies from around the world using sophisticated MRI methods have confirmed that intelligence does correlate with brain size, and is different for men and women for different parts of the brain. This is just one example of the obfuscation conjured up in this book.

So is it good reading? By all means. Existing Marxists will have their prejudices reinforced, while those of us who are unabashed empiricists can take pleasure in the hackneyed attempts at dislodging good solid science. That is, it was for me a pleasure to read because on almost every page, the arguments against eugenics could be turned around against the radical environmentalists. It is similar to an atheist reading the bible to confirm, chapter after chapter, the inconsistencies and absurdities of the text to reaffirm their position.