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Superior

The Return of Race Science

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Superior

By: Angela Saini
Narrated by: Hannah Melbourn
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2019 Best-Of Lists: 10 Best Science Books of the Year (Smithsonian Magazine) · Best Science Books of the Year (NPR's Science Friday) · Best Science and Technology Books from 2019” (Library Journal)
An astute and timely examination of the re-emergence of scientific research into racial differences.

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 World War II, the mainstream scientific world turned its back on eugenics and the study of racial difference. But a worldwide network of intellectual racists and segregationists quietly founded journals and funded research, providing the kind of shoddy studies that were ultimately cited in Richard Herrnstein 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 an idea that still managed to somehow survive in the way scientists thought about human variation and genetics. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists studying human biodiversity, most of whom claim to be just following the data, Angela Saini shows us how, again and again, even mainstream scientists cling to the idea that race is biologically real. As our understanding of complex traits like intelligence, and the effects of environmental and cultural 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 rigorous, much-needed examination of the insidious and destructive nature of race science—and a powerful reminder that, biologically, we are all far more alike than different. Racism & Discrimination Social Sciences History & Philosophy Science Biological Sciences Discrimination Social justice Thought-Provoking Anthropology Philosophy Africa Latin America
Thorough Research • Nuanced Perspective • Clear Pronunciation • Informative Content • Thought-provoking Analysis

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fair speed and clear pronunciation, recommend!

the content is not new, though it is worth listening if you never read relevant content.

great narration, love her accent

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This book points out the folly and danger of "race" in a post human genome age, although my DNA profile says that I'm 75% Nigerian it really only measures those who live there now can we really say that ev we everyone sampled lived there for over three hundred years? Populations move around and what does that really mean? It's not like I can say to a Nigerian "I'm Nigerian ". I 'm too mixed. I probably couldn't recieved an organ transplant from most Nigerians nor would I react the same way to some medicines as and "average" (whatever that means) Nigerian. The key take away to all this should be within group variations is greater than between group variations (think of Kevin Hart vs Shac ) .

Superior book

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This audiobook is first of all performed very well, and even more importantly represents a thorough and nuanced take on the complex and complicated history of race and racism in science.

A nuanced take

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Excellent exploration of the history and effects of Race Sciences. Honestly I believe if your not educated on the history of Race Sciences than you are literally wasting your time discussing matters of social justice. This book is a excellent start.

Excellent exploration of the history and effects

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It was a good review of the issues and history of race in science. I was hoping for more science facts.

A good review of the issues

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