A Troublesome Inheritance : Genes, Race and Human History

Few ideas have been more harmful to society than the idea that there is a biological reality to race. Indeed, it has been practically banished from polite academic discussion. Human evolution, the consensus holds, ended in prehistory. Convenient as it seems, that view cannot be right. Nicholas Wade cites mounting evidence that humans have in fact continued to evolve into the present day. Because populations stayed in place for thousands of years, substantially isolated from one another, human evolution proceeded independently on each continent, giving rise to the various races of humankind as we now know them. While rejecting unequivocally the notion that there is any superior race, Wade argues that the study of this recent evolution holds information critical to the understanding of human societies and history, and that the public interest is best served by pursuing the scientific truth without fear.