This open access book examines the web of scientific, cultural, and political interests that influenced the writing of and the contemporary currents that keep this controversial book in discussion. Published in 1994, remains one of the most controversial social science books ever published due to its claim for genetic differences in intelligence among races which, while it repulsed many, resonated in some audiences and remains a touchstone in the social sciences today.Professor Tucker opens with an analysis of the role of race in that provides a strong counter to the author’s claims that race played a minor role in the book or that it was agnostic to the question of the role of biology in causing race differences in education, intelligence, and socioeconomic success. He moves on to consider its emphasis on meritocracy, situating it within the history of Herrnstein’s own intellectual trajectory, as well as the connections to eugenics and psychology in the early 20th century. In the remaining chapters Professor Tucker examines as part of an ongoing political project including a discussion of the way in which the attitudes fostered by the book can be seen to have played a role in the 2016 US election. It argues that by focusing attention exclusively on individual differences in cognitive ability as the source of inequality, it diverts attention from the more important structural variables that account for differences in people’s economic outcomes.This compelling analysis will appeal in particular to scholars and those with an interest in the history of scientific racism, the history of psychology and the sociology of knowledge and science. weiterlesen