Scan barcode
lilichin's review
5.0
Scientific language is implicit with racist ideas that we take for granted without questioning where these ideas come from and how they become more normalized over time - from the Darwinian era to the present day shock-and-awe over what our genes can tell us. This book is brilliant and should be read by everyone! It's a fascinating as well as disturbing investigation into how "culture" creates and locks into place race categories and "genetic identity" as accepted biological realities. So much food for thought here. (Note that Superior is also endorsed by the great Ed Yong)
titus_hjelm's review against another edition
4.0
A great start for a new reading year. This is a good example of a topic for which investigative journalism fits better than academic debate. The whole point of the book is that science is not above social prejudices, but to make this argument within scholarly discourse is often difficult. In her interviews Saini manages to catch the ’race realists’ at their core in a way that purely academic argument couldn’t do. On top of it, the prose flows nicely, with hard science, social history, and personal reflection intertwined. Recommended.
nicolarr's review against another edition
5.0
This is jaw-dropping in some of its evidence, and Saini presents her arguments cogently and compellingly.
paper2neurons's review against another edition
4.25
Superior goes through the history of race theories in science, from the origins of race theory in European colonialism, eugenics, genetics, and most recently ‘human difference’, showing how the same concepts rise up again and again, even after being debunked. It is very well written; Angela discuses all these topics in a matter of fact tone, providing justification and evidence for any views or opinions she shares.
This book goes well beyond studying who people would typically call ‘racists’, and brings up fascinating modern issues such as ‘What is the impact of recommending drugs to specific racial groups when there is no clear evidence that there is any racial difference in drug effectiveness?’.
Given hundreds of years of scientists being unsuccessful finding any causation between race and emergent attributes like intelligence and pain tolerance, the author seeks to answer why scientists are still trying to find a link. By giving a historical perspective of the science of race, the author shows how the biases of scientists, university funding, corporate profit, data availability, political power and identity politics all influence what questions scientists work on.
I would definitely recommend this book for emerging scientists (and it may be worthwhile integrating it into a graduate curriculum). I am concerned, however, that due to the specific nature of this book, it may appear less relevant to fields outside of genetics and psychology. This could easily be mitigated through discussion questions that relate the specific examples in the book to similar issues in one’s own field.
alexandrawillumsen's review against another edition
3.0
Important, especially in this day and age, but I didn’t find it very interesting, personally
amusedmuse's review against another edition
4.0
As you read "Superior: The Return of Race Science" you rapidly learn that the subtitle is attention grabbing, but ultimately incorrect: race science and scientific racism never stopped being a thing. The historical context and interviews with present day experts show that much like racism itself, it never stopped being a thing, just less socially acceptable. Well put together book about an utterly frustrating topic.