Race Unmasked

Biology and Race in the Twentieth Century

by Michael Yudell

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.

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Pub Date Sep 09 2014 | Archive Date Nov 17 2014

Description

Race, while drawn from the visual cues of human diversity, is an idea with a measurable past, an identifiable present, and an uncertain future. The concept of race has been at the center of both triumphs and tragedies in American history and has had a profound effect on the human experience. Race Unmasked revisits the origins of commonly held beliefs about the scientific nature of racial differences, examines the roots of the modern idea of race, and explains why race continues to generate controversy as a tool of classification even in our genomic age.

Through rigorous historical research, Race Unmasked reveals how genetics and related biological disciplines formed and preserved ideas of race and, at times, racism throughout the twentieth century. Surveying the work of some of the twentieth century's most notable scientists, the book tests and then proves the limitations of a racial worldview. This new work is a gripping history of science and scientists that throws the contours of our current and evolving understanding of human diversity into sharp relief.

Race, while drawn from the visual cues of human diversity, is an idea with a measurable past, an identifiable present, and an uncertain future. The concept of race has been at the center of both...

A Note From the Publisher

*Please note that a NEW AND IMPROVED galley of Race Unmasked has been uploaded on 6/12/14. If you have already requested/ downloaded the advanced reader copy prior to this date, please re-download the new version. Thanks very much.

*Please note that a NEW AND IMPROVED galley of Race Unmasked has been uploaded on 6/12/14. If you have already requested/ downloaded the advanced reader copy prior to this date, please re-download...

Advance Praise

“We have needed a reassessment and intelligent book on how racial categorizing grows within twentieth and twenty-first century science without using the simple labels of “racism” or “racist.” Race Unmasked is a terrific guide to the often invisible intertwined terrain of science and politics around race. Re-reading the past with an eye to nuance and clarity, Yudell understands how “race” comes to be unintentionally hidden, and yet still can be uncovered and critiqued. This book should find its way to classrooms across the curriculum.”

—Susan M. Reverby, Wellesley College and author of Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and its Legacy

“Race matters. All over the world we sort each other into groups by skin color, hair texture, and other physical characteristics, but as Michael Yudell reminds us in this masterful, engaging, and important book, we barely have a clue about the biological basis for what we are doing. Race Unmasked is just the right remedy for those seeking to better understand the horrors and wrongs of racism.”

—Arthur L. Caplan, NYU Langone Medical Center

“Michael Yudell has given us a fascinating and perceptive study of “man's most dangerous myth.” This insightful book on race should be read widely by anyone concerned with the multiple uses, misuses, tangled history, and persistent confusions over this vexed and potent concept.”

—Keith Wailoo, Princeton University

“How can a concept that has been so debunked as a biological reality keep rising from the dead? Race Unmasked helps answer this by illustrating the troubling story of the sustained, strained, and stained history of the concept of race in scientific thought and practice.”

—David Rosner, Columbia University