Rating: 
Summary: Tha naked emperor
Review: This is a valuable book. It deals with three main areas: (1) the development of the concept of race before Darwin; 2) the rise of "scientific" racism; and (3) a demolishing of the idea of a biological basis for the existence of race. Graves does a good job in outlining the changing rationales for the existence of distinct races, and, more perniciously, the ranking of races into superior and inferior ones. Before the 15th century the concept of race was quite nebulous. Most people did not travel widely or see others who differed substantially from themselves. Although, people have always thought of their own group as "better" than others-- in the past this was a more parochial comparison (town vs town; nation vs nation, etc. The beginning of the Age of Exploration brought the existence of people with quite different physical appearances into the public conscience. This, coupled with the desire of Europeans to conquer and subjugate these newly encountered people, led to the idea of different human races and their inequality. Prior to Darwin, the rationale was creationist based on some supernatural design, or based on presumed taxonomic characteristics (Johann Blumenbach, Georges Buffon).Darwin's revolution demolished the rationale for races, but this took a long time to come about. The problem is that even if a correct theory is present, the theory must be properly applied. In the case of human races, Edward Spencer's misapplication of Darwin profoundly influenced Anglo-American thinking. His erroneous "survival of the fittest" paradigm made it easy for self-fulfilling analyses of the level of development in different parts of the world, in the 19th century, to be reified as scientific proof of the superiority of the white race. (If the survey had been taken in the 11th or 12th century, the Chinese and the Arabs would have been the highest ranked : ). Graves does a thorough job of exposing the racism and shoddy research of people like Joseph Comte Gobineau and Francis Galton. These approaches led to the eugenics movement, the sterilization in the United States of thousands of people classified (often erroneously) as mentally retarded, and ultimately to the Nazi Holocaust in t he name of racial purity. The finest part of the book is the last section, in which Graves, a molecular biologist and geneticist, demonstrates his up-to-date command of the scientific literature. In it he rebuts claims by Gobineau's and Galton's successors- Arthus Jensen, Phillippe Rushton, Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein. In his book, *Descent of Man...* Darwin pointed out that the concept of different races was in trouble because taxonomists could not agree on how many races there were and what characteristics should be used. As Graves points out, "Detailed analysis of the existing morphological variation within and between these racial categories has forced modern physical anthropologists to conclude that no consistent race designations can be constructed, thus validating Darwin's original suggestion." Both the American Society of Physical Anthropologists and the American Anthropological Association have issued official statements that the concept of biologically different races is false. Morphological characteristics such as skin color, hair texture, and nasal height are not only superficial, but also subject to environmental influences such as solar intensity and level of humidity in the air. So that people with very different genetic characteristics, like Nigerians and New Guineans, will have black skin and frizzy hair. The advent of sequencing of DNA made a much more fundamental approach possible. The results are in-- there are no biological races. Some 84% of the genetic variability of humans is found between individuals belonging to the same nation or tribe and only 6% of the genetic variability can be attributed to the different "races." That is, two Watusis may be more different genetically between themselves than from a Swede. Even these differences are relatively small. The entire human race is remarkably homogeneous. Two gorillas in West Africa are more genetically diverse than the entire human race. Graves' message is that we are truly brothers under the skin and the Race Emperor is truly naked.
Rating:
Summary: empassioned but accurate
Review: This is another recent book that tries to turn the clock back on racial studies, brain size, psychometrics, and all of the research that has been developed over the past few decades by basically ignoring that research. The arguments are weak when they are present, and often they are just plain missing. Graves has the unique ability of disproving a theory by alluding to a proof he has said to have shown somewhere else in the book, but the reader will be hard pressed to understand the elliptical arguments that are never quite complete or are just outright lies. Still, I almost recommend this book, because it again shows how far sociobiology, genetic studies, psychometrics, and intelligence studies have left these new pseudoscientists in the dust. They have no more good arguments against Jensenism, and so they are left only with deception to try and turn back the clock. I'll just mention some of the egregious deceptions that Graves commits. The book is published in 2001, and yet he completely ignores the American Psychological Association's 1995 task force report "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns." He also mentions the Flynn Effect as if it is true, while another book by the APA entitled The Rising Curve dismisses the Flynn Effect of rising intelligence stating that: it is an anomaly that to date has very little meaning. But the most glaring omission (though they occur on almost every page of the book) is his treatment of intelligence and brain size. Like Gould, he only mentions the studies carried out over 100 years ago (and now known to be fairly accurate after all). In the last few years, MRI and other imaging studies have shown solid correlations between intelligence and the neocortex, as well as convolutions, density, etc. How could Graves not be aware of these numerous studies? Either like Gould he is a liar or he is very selective in his readings. I must assume, as other's reviewed his book before publication, that these omissions were pointed out to him. Finally, what is really sad is that Graves is Black. And his special pleading does other Black scholars a disservice. Finally, there is the issue of race. He uses the old tried and true means of denying race by using an archaic definition of "pure race." As anyone in science understands, races are in fact just arbitrary taxonomies that look at the frequencies of genetic alleles between population groups. It is the only definition used, and is scientifically unchallengeable because it does not in fact make any statements for example between someone's color and their intelligence, though Graves tries to make this ancient claim also. This book would have been somewhat interesting reading perhaps in 1901. But his arguments are addressing the science of over 100 years ago. Science of course waits for no one, not even Graves.
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