Customer Reviews

Culture of Intolerance: Chauvinism, Class, and Racism in the United States

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a tremendous achievement: the book is readable, insightful, and original in the way it describes bias and inequality in America today. The book adds to a large number of books in the social sciences that try to understand why there is so much inequality today -- so few African-Americans, women and others at the top -- when so many people say that they don't intend to discriminate. Social psychologists have spent lots of time developing elaborate experimental theories of ingroup favoritism and concepts like aversive racism. This book, however, makes very similar points without getting bogged down in the technical details of experiments. It is an excellent book for an introduction to thinking about bias -- a superb book for an undergraduate course and many graduate seminars.

Gives great definitions of basic but much confused terms like nation,culture, state etc. Beyond , it is wise, learned and and a real call for an end to hierarchy and domination , superior and inferior statuses in our thought and in society. We need more books like this that really critique American society.

"Culture of Intolerance: Chauvinism, Class, and Racism in the United States," by Mark Nathan Cohen, is a fascinating book. Cohen writes in a clear, accessible style, and handles controversial issues with a firm and non-sensational confidence.

Cohen begins by considering the impact of the controversial book "The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life," by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray. Cohen goes on to deconstruct prevailing notions about "race." He claims "'Races' as depicted in the popular imagination do not exist and have never existed" (chapter 2) and considers such scientific evidence as data about blood types in order to support his assertion.

Cohen examines human culture, language in particular, and considers the often arbitrary nature of cultural phenomena. Among the phenomena he discusses are "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," breast feeding, IQ tests, and the debate over "Ebonics." Overall, an intelligent, thought-provoking book.