In his Preface to A Troublesome Inheritance, Nicholas Wade writes:
“the academic left has managed to suppress almost all discussion of human differentiation. Most researchers shy away from the subject rather than risk being smeared with insulations of racism and putting their careers and funding in jeopardy…
“Another tactic has been to assert, without evidence, that [my] book is full of errors and misinformation. Such attacks, which have included a letter signed by a large number of academic geneticists, do not cite specific instances of either fault.; The reader is expected to accept the critics’ mere say-so as sufficient evidence. Such criticisms are politically motivated, and in my view without merit.”
For many years Wade was a science writer for The New York Times. After this book was published, he became a free lance writer. I suspect he was asked to leave.
As long as liberals believed that blacks were intrinsically equal to whites, and that evidence to the contrary was caused by racial discrimination, liberals were in favor of intellectual freedom. Two generations since the civil rights legislation was signed, and since the War on Poverty was declared, blacks continue, on the average, to lag behind, despite being discriminated in favor of with affirmative action programs, and despite the fact that vast sums of money have been spent on anti poverty programs designed to help blacks. Consequently, many liberals have lost their commitment to intellectual freedom.
When I am trying to find where truth lies on a complex and a controversial issue any appeal to emotion inclines me to give more credence to the other point of view. It is difficult to find a review of this book that does not include negatively charged adjectives and adverbs, and the use of the words “racism” and “racist.”
In his first chapter “Evolution, Rae, and History,” Wade writes human evolution has not only been recent and extensive, it has been regional.”
Genes for intelligence have been found:
New evidence for 'IQ' genes
It is only a matter of time until a researcher who is confident of keeping his or her job will point out that genes influencing high intelligence are more likely to be found in whites and East Asians than in Negroes.
Wade mentions Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould. Gould maintained for years that the different races have the same average brain sizes. Modern methods of measuring brains have demonstrated that Gould is mistaken: east Asians tend to have larger brains than whites; whites tend to have larger brains than negroes. Additional research has demonstrated a correlation between brain size and intelligence.
In his chapter “Origins of Human Social nature,” Wade writes about the MAO-A gene. The MAO-A gene is often called "the Warrior Gene." This is unfortunate, because everyone has this gene, and the vast majority of people have a version of this gene that does not contribute to violent behavior.
Nevertheless, there is a version of this gene that greatly increases the likelihood that those who possess it have committed violent crimes. This version was first discovered in a Dutch family. However, five percent of black men have it. Only 0.1% of white males have it.
Wade squeamishly avoids saying so, but it is reasonable to suppose that additional crime gene variants will be discovered, and it will be discovered that they are not evenly distributed between the races.
In his chapter "The Recasting of Human Capital," Wade writes “What makes societies rich or poor is to a great extent their human capital.” In other words, countries that are poor in natural resources, but rich in average IQ power, like Japan, Singapore, and Iceland, have high standards of living. Countries that are the other way around are poor.
In this chapter Wade mentions a study by Steven Pinker that shows “Between 1200 and 2000, homicide rate per fell from 90 or so to just over one in five European countries.” Using similar data from England, Gregory Clark argues that draconian criminal justice systems were removing people with crime genes.
In his chapter “Jewish Adaptation” Wade attributes the high IQ averages of Ashkenazi Jews, and their disproportional presence in professions requiring superior intelligence to the fact that for centuries in Europe to financial professions. Finance requires high intelligence. Jewish men who could not learn the skills left the faith or had no children.
In his last chapter Wade writes, “Within the West, the success of Jews has benefitted every economy in which they worked and contributed immeasurably to the arts and sciences.”
In “Civilizations and History,” Wade mentions Jared Diamond’s book Guns, Germs, and Steel in order to criticize it. Diamond acknowledges that races that adopted agriculture earlier are more prosperous than races that adopted agriculture more recently. Diamond ignores the fact that agriculture and civilization exert more population pressure on intelligence than hunting and gathering. Wade claims that Diamond’s book “is driven by ideology not science.”
“the academic left has managed to suppress almost all discussion of human differentiation. Most researchers shy away from the subject rather than risk being smeared with insulations of racism and putting their careers and funding in jeopardy…
“Another tactic has been to assert, without evidence, that [my] book is full of errors and misinformation. Such attacks, which have included a letter signed by a large number of academic geneticists, do not cite specific instances of either fault.; The reader is expected to accept the critics’ mere say-so as sufficient evidence. Such criticisms are politically motivated, and in my view without merit.”
For many years Wade was a science writer for The New York Times. After this book was published, he became a free lance writer. I suspect he was asked to leave.
As long as liberals believed that blacks were intrinsically equal to whites, and that evidence to the contrary was caused by racial discrimination, liberals were in favor of intellectual freedom. Two generations since the civil rights legislation was signed, and since the War on Poverty was declared, blacks continue, on the average, to lag behind, despite being discriminated in favor of with affirmative action programs, and despite the fact that vast sums of money have been spent on anti poverty programs designed to help blacks. Consequently, many liberals have lost their commitment to intellectual freedom.
When I am trying to find where truth lies on a complex and a controversial issue any appeal to emotion inclines me to give more credence to the other point of view. It is difficult to find a review of this book that does not include negatively charged adjectives and adverbs, and the use of the words “racism” and “racist.”
In his first chapter “Evolution, Rae, and History,” Wade writes human evolution has not only been recent and extensive, it has been regional.”
Genes for intelligence have been found:
New evidence for 'IQ' genes
It is only a matter of time until a researcher who is confident of keeping his or her job will point out that genes influencing high intelligence are more likely to be found in whites and East Asians than in Negroes.
Wade mentions Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould. Gould maintained for years that the different races have the same average brain sizes. Modern methods of measuring brains have demonstrated that Gould is mistaken: east Asians tend to have larger brains than whites; whites tend to have larger brains than negroes. Additional research has demonstrated a correlation between brain size and intelligence.
In his chapter “Origins of Human Social nature,” Wade writes about the MAO-A gene. The MAO-A gene is often called "the Warrior Gene." This is unfortunate, because everyone has this gene, and the vast majority of people have a version of this gene that does not contribute to violent behavior.
Nevertheless, there is a version of this gene that greatly increases the likelihood that those who possess it have committed violent crimes. This version was first discovered in a Dutch family. However, five percent of black men have it. Only 0.1% of white males have it.
Wade squeamishly avoids saying so, but it is reasonable to suppose that additional crime gene variants will be discovered, and it will be discovered that they are not evenly distributed between the races.
In his chapter "The Recasting of Human Capital," Wade writes “What makes societies rich or poor is to a great extent their human capital.” In other words, countries that are poor in natural resources, but rich in average IQ power, like Japan, Singapore, and Iceland, have high standards of living. Countries that are the other way around are poor.
In this chapter Wade mentions a study by Steven Pinker that shows “Between 1200 and 2000, homicide rate per fell from 90 or so to just over one in five European countries.” Using similar data from England, Gregory Clark argues that draconian criminal justice systems were removing people with crime genes.
In his chapter “Jewish Adaptation” Wade attributes the high IQ averages of Ashkenazi Jews, and their disproportional presence in professions requiring superior intelligence to the fact that for centuries in Europe to financial professions. Finance requires high intelligence. Jewish men who could not learn the skills left the faith or had no children.
In his last chapter Wade writes, “Within the West, the success of Jews has benefitted every economy in which they worked and contributed immeasurably to the arts and sciences.”
In “Civilizations and History,” Wade mentions Jared Diamond’s book Guns, Germs, and Steel in order to criticize it. Diamond acknowledges that races that adopted agriculture earlier are more prosperous than races that adopted agriculture more recently. Diamond ignores the fact that agriculture and civilization exert more population pressure on intelligence than hunting and gathering. Wade claims that Diamond’s book “is driven by ideology not science.”
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