Michael Levin’s 1997 masterpiece, Why Race Matters, quickly became a classic, and just as quickly went out print. Used copies of the hardcover edition have sold for up to $500.00. New Century Foundation is proud to offer this affordable softcover edition. It includes every word of the original, plus a new foreword by Jared Taylor.
Why Race Matters
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Philosopher Michael Levin has delivered one of the most authoritative and incisive treatises on the importance of race ever written. --J. Philippe Rushton, University of Western Ontario
Why Race Matters does exactly what the title promises—it removes all illusions about the insignificance of race. --Jared Taylor, editor, American Renaissance
Levin’s mastery of the subject is evinced in his book’s amazingly broad and detailed scope and analytical depth. --Arthur R. Jensen, U.C. Berkeley
Why Race Matters does exactly what the title promises—it removes all illusions about the insignificance of race. --Jared Taylor, editor, American Renaissance
Levin’s mastery of the subject is evinced in his book’s amazingly broad and detailed scope and analytical depth. --Arthur R. Jensen, U.C. Berkeley
About the Author
Michael Levin was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1943. He attended Stuyvesant High School, Michigan State University, and Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1969. He teaches at the College of the City of New York (CCNY) and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His position at CCNY was threatened in 1991 when attempts were made to revoke his tenure because of his public statements related to race differences. These efforts were turned back by a Federal court decision. Prof. Levin has written four books, including Feminism and Freedom in 1987, and is currently at work on a book about free will. He has published widely in professional journals, magazines and newspapers. He is the father of two grown sons, and currently lives with his wife in New York City. He has run in five New York City marathons, most recently in 2004. While Prof. Levin's professional interests focus on epistemology and metaphysics, he thinks philosophy can also help clarify more down-to-earth issues. His interest in group differences was sparked by both the emergence of feminism, which denied obvious facts about the sexes in the name of patently unfair demands on men, and by the denial of the very existence of "intelligence" in the name of equality.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
91 of 102 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Philosopher Michael Levin has delivered one of the most authoritative and incisive treatises on the importance of race ever written. Why Race Matters is must reading for anyone interested in the debates on race, IQ, crime, welfare, affirmative action, and multiculturalism. Levin cross-examines the stockpiles of statistical data, psychological test scores, and behavioral genetic analyses to brilliantly illuminate the logical pitfalls and stumbling blocks in so much of what has been written on the subject. His powerful logic digs deep and his courageous inferences vault forward. With panache and the occasional snort of humor, Levin seems to be always bang on target. I especially recommended this book when it first came out in conjunction with my own Race, Evolution, and Behavior but now I should definitely add Richard Lynn's two new books (2006) as well.
50 of 59 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The purpose of this review is to correct some of the blatantly false assertions in R. Nelson's review "Bell Curve beat him to the punch, overall ineffective."
First, if the question of why Black children are incapable of learning involved only poor Blacks, then genetic deficiency would not be an obvious answer. However, everyone who has studied this problem knows that the real question is why the children of Black doctors, lawyers, and corporate executives do worse in school and on academic tests than the children of White and Oriental manual workers. Moreover, study after study has found that Black parents value academic achievement more highly than White parents and give their children more academic help than White parents; and Black children do more homework than White children, have a higher estimation of their intelligence than White children and higher expectations of future academic attainment (S. Farron, The Affirmative Action Hoax, pages 75-90 of the first edition; pages 68-76 of the second edition).
Second, the description of Jewish, Arab, and Korean store owners "sucking the blood from these poor neighborhoods" shows an incredible lack of elementary common sense. The reason that these people own the stores in Black neighborhoods is that they offer better products at lower prices than competitors. Would these neighborhoods be better off without them? Let us look at an actual example. In most of East Africa, Indians owned nearly every retail outlet (in many areas, every one). When they were driven out - by government expulsion and/or mob violence - Blacks did not replace them. "The commercial life of these towns declined from main streets of busy shops to simple open-air markets of hawkers and fruit-sellers sitting in the mud" (P. Theroux, Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town, pages 285-6, 288, 322-3, 344).
Third, no one who has read a single speech that Abraham Lincoln made after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act could possibly think that he did not care whether slavery existed. In his first public response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act (at Peoria in October 1854), he said, "I cannot but hate [slavery]. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery." He repeated those words often, including in his first debate with Stephen Douglas in their contest for senator from Illinois in 1858. In that election, the Republicans got more votes, although Douglas was elected; and Illinois may have been the most racist non-slave state.
Fourth, in the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party's campaign centered around the evil of slavery and opposition to its extension (E. Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War); and Abraham Lincoln carried every non-slave state, except New Jersey, where he gained half the electoral votes.
Fifth, the North began the Civil War to preserve the Union; but after January 1, 1863 (the Emancipation Proclamation) its purpose was to end slavery. Has Nelson never read the Gettysburg Address?
Sixth, Blacks definitely benefit greatly from the presence (not the benevolence) of Whites. The higher the proportion of Whites among whom Blacks live, the better off Blacks are. During the 1980s, when South Africa was ruled by a universally execrated White government, it attracted 1.5 million Black migrants from Black-ruled African countries (W. Williams, South Africa's War against Capitalism, page 147). Blacks in Brazil live better than Blacks in South Africa; and Blacks in the USA live better than in Brazil.
Seventh, the most careful, extensive, and cited study of White-Black adoption found that the average IQ of interracial Black-White children adopted in infancy was nearly exactly half-way between the average IQ of White and Black children who were raised from infancy by the same families (Intelligence 19, 1 (1994), pages 13-27).
Eighth, Northern Blacks have a much higher proportion of White genetic input than Southern Blacks.
Ninth, the relative academic and occupational success of Jews, Nordics, Italians, Irish, Latinos, and Blacks strikingly confirms the importance of IQ. Their average IQ differs in exactly that order.
First, if the question of why Black children are incapable of learning involved only poor Blacks, then genetic deficiency would not be an obvious answer. However, everyone who has studied this problem knows that the real question is why the children of Black doctors, lawyers, and corporate executives do worse in school and on academic tests than the children of White and Oriental manual workers. Moreover, study after study has found that Black parents value academic achievement more highly than White parents and give their children more academic help than White parents; and Black children do more homework than White children, have a higher estimation of their intelligence than White children and higher expectations of future academic attainment (S. Farron, The Affirmative Action Hoax, pages 75-90 of the first edition; pages 68-76 of the second edition).
Second, the description of Jewish, Arab, and Korean store owners "sucking the blood from these poor neighborhoods" shows an incredible lack of elementary common sense. The reason that these people own the stores in Black neighborhoods is that they offer better products at lower prices than competitors. Would these neighborhoods be better off without them? Let us look at an actual example. In most of East Africa, Indians owned nearly every retail outlet (in many areas, every one). When they were driven out - by government expulsion and/or mob violence - Blacks did not replace them. "The commercial life of these towns declined from main streets of busy shops to simple open-air markets of hawkers and fruit-sellers sitting in the mud" (P. Theroux, Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town, pages 285-6, 288, 322-3, 344).
Third, no one who has read a single speech that Abraham Lincoln made after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act could possibly think that he did not care whether slavery existed. In his first public response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act (at Peoria in October 1854), he said, "I cannot but hate [slavery]. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery." He repeated those words often, including in his first debate with Stephen Douglas in their contest for senator from Illinois in 1858. In that election, the Republicans got more votes, although Douglas was elected; and Illinois may have been the most racist non-slave state.
Fourth, in the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party's campaign centered around the evil of slavery and opposition to its extension (E. Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War); and Abraham Lincoln carried every non-slave state, except New Jersey, where he gained half the electoral votes.
Fifth, the North began the Civil War to preserve the Union; but after January 1, 1863 (the Emancipation Proclamation) its purpose was to end slavery. Has Nelson never read the Gettysburg Address?
Sixth, Blacks definitely benefit greatly from the presence (not the benevolence) of Whites. The higher the proportion of Whites among whom Blacks live, the better off Blacks are. During the 1980s, when South Africa was ruled by a universally execrated White government, it attracted 1.5 million Black migrants from Black-ruled African countries (W. Williams, South Africa's War against Capitalism, page 147). Blacks in Brazil live better than Blacks in South Africa; and Blacks in the USA live better than in Brazil.
Seventh, the most careful, extensive, and cited study of White-Black adoption found that the average IQ of interracial Black-White children adopted in infancy was nearly exactly half-way between the average IQ of White and Black children who were raised from infancy by the same families (Intelligence 19, 1 (1994), pages 13-27).
Eighth, Northern Blacks have a much higher proportion of White genetic input than Southern Blacks.
Ninth, the relative academic and occupational success of Jews, Nordics, Italians, Irish, Latinos, and Blacks strikingly confirms the importance of IQ. Their average IQ differs in exactly that order.
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
honest, upright, irrefutable, objective and solid - for all who wants to get rid of prejudices, obsessive thinking against race, illusion of equality and most of all, for everybody a must who doesn't want to live with all this common lies of political correctness and affirmative actions
Dr. Ferdinand Berger
Dr. Ferdinand Berger
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
sad, but true
This book isn't an easy read by any stretch but it isn't hard to follow either as far as i was concerned. Read more
Published 5 months ago by nothingbutthetruth
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book, must read!
This is not an easy read. Very much worth the while, though! A technical, thorough book.
Published on June 16, 2010 by Dylemma
1.0 out of 5 stars
culture not genetics
The real problem is in the mentality, the heart and the spirit of black folk.
Malcolm X (and others) hit at the heart of the issue decades ago. Read more
Malcolm X (and others) hit at the heart of the issue decades ago. Read more
Published on April 30, 2010 by Brentano Amaroso
3.0 out of 5 stars
look at the individual and not skin color
Even if there is some difference in AVERAGE IQs between whites, asians, and blacks...well, so what? It doesn't diminish our common humanity. Read more
Published on June 17, 2009 by nervousfarter
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Heretical Truth in an age of Deceit
Finally scientific information unfettered by mainstream feel good politics. This book is one key for understanding racial differences and why our best laid programs for success... Read more
Published on December 6, 2008 by L. WILLIS
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank God for Jewish intellectuals
Two different interpretations of the book:
1. From a non-racial and non-political interpretation, you have to admit that this is a very well-written book. Read more
1. From a non-racial and non-political interpretation, you have to admit that this is a very well-written book. Read more
Published on January 13, 2008 by RisingSun
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bell Curve beat him to the punch, overall ineffective.
As an inner city African American school teacher I feel that Mr. Levin made several valid points in his book but also made several laughable factual mistakes trying to prove his... Read more
Published on July 10, 2007 by R. Nelson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating book that is well done and thought provoking
The facts and their implications are a tough pill to swallow, but one that we are swallowing anyway, so best be armed with the truth.
Published on January 3, 2007 by J. Kihn
