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Why Race Matters Paperback – November 15, 2005

4.2 out of 5 stars 71 customer reviews

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 415 pages
  • Publisher: New Century Books (November 15, 2005)
  • ISBN-10: 0965638359
  • ISBN-13: 978-0965638357
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #564,174 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Format: Hardcover
The true virtue of this book, besides its candor, is its careful analysis of all aspects of racial difference. Some books focus solely on the facts regarding racial differences in intelligence without presenting evidence detailing the effects these differences have on lived social reality. The fact that blacks do not on average possess the same level of intelligence as whites or Asians is so well established by extensive documentation in statistical analysis, recorded social phenomena, and the empirical witness of experience that the burden of proof clearly rests on egalitarians. Levin wisely does not reinvent the wheel, but instead provides a masterly summary of the evidence and moves on to a much more controversial, but equally well-grounded conclusion: that intelligence does not just predict test scores, academic grades and career attainment, but it also has important implications for personality traits and moral codes. Our moral choices, and the standards of morality in our culture, are dictated by many factors which depend upon intelligence. As Levin argues, intelligence has a clear relationship with the ability to make abstract plans for the future. Such traits as honesty, which are central to our cultural norms of morality, are directly correlated with our ability to plan. Everyone knows that in every interpersonal exchange which involves trust, such as the sale of goods and the provision of services, the person who acts dishonestly can usually achieve a short term advantage through deception or violence. Intelligent persons, who have a correspondingly abstract and longer-term grasp of social interaction, will normally choose honesty - a response which will facilitate continued interactions, and thus mutually beneficial transactions.Read more ›
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Format: Hardcover
Michael Levin here refutes egalitarian/environmentalist dogma by showing unequivocally that the black/white IQ gap(Blacks in America have an IQ of 85 versus 100 for Whites) is mostly genetic in origin.He mention 7 arguments for a genetic cause of the black/white difference:
1)the high interindividual heritability of IQ and personality 2)the early appearance of race differences in IQ 3)The physiological racedifferences(in for exampel brain size) 4) Transracial adoptionstudies (which shows little IQgain for adopted black children in prosperous white homes) 5) Failure of Intervention to raise black IQ 6)That many other minorities who have been "discriminated" (such as jews and chinese)have in fact higher( not lower) IQ than non-jewish whites 7) the VERY low IQ of african blacks and their non-existent cultural achievements.
Adding it all together Levin makes a very strong case for a genetic cause of black/white IQdifferences.
Even though Why Race Matters alone makes a very persuasive case for a genetic explanation of the Black/White IQ gap it should be complemented with Philippe Rushton's Race, Evolution and Behaviour who gives a very persuasive evolutionary explanation of why genetic racedifferences in IQ(and other things) have arisen.
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Format: Hardcover
The subject of race, the role of intelligence, and the differences that exist between racial groups in their intellectual capacity have been a major source of friction for most of America's national history.
Levin may not be politically popular in some circles, but his book proves the old adage tht "There is nothing as immovable nor as powerful as the truth." Even when the truth may be unpleasant.
While much of this book is taken up with statistical tables and analysis therof, it illustrates the painstaking care that Levin has gone to in an effort to establish his major thesis.
In a nutshell (to borrow a cliche), Levin's thesis is that America is not a land of racists and white supremacists who have colluded to suppress other groups or deny them equal opportunity. Rather, Americans have not faced up to the fact that in a nation and era when one's ability to prosper is increasingly tied to intelligence and mental abilities, the mental differnces between racial groups are major determinants of well being (to no less an extent than physical abilities are in atheletics).
Levin concludes, with a huge amount of scientific data to back hjim up, that black failure is almost entirely due to genetic factors tht cause blacks to be less intelligent than whites. Moreover, he notes that whites are in danger of being displaced by Chinese and other Asians if they persist in dysgenic breeding (where the most educated and inelligent whites have children at below reproduction rates, while the breeding of less intelligent ones is heavily subsidized by government programs).
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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.
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