‘How to Argue With a Racist’ by Adam Rutherford
'How to Argue With a Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality' by Adam Rutherford is a vital manifesto for a twenty-first century understanding of human evolution and variation, and a timely weapon against the misuse of science to justify bigotry.
Race is real because we perceive it. Racism is real because we enact it. But the appeal to science to strengthen racist ideologies is on the rise - and increasingly part of the public discourse on politics, migration, education, sport and intelligence. Stereotypes and myths about race are expressed not just by overt racists, but also by well-intentioned people whose experience and cultural baggage steer them towards views that are not supported by the modern study of human genetics. Even some scientists are uncomfortable expressing opinions deriving from their research where it relates to race. Yet, if understood correctly, science and history can be powerful allies against racism, granting the clearest view of how people actually are, rather than how we judge them to be.
How to Argue With a Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality
by Adam Rutherford
Published in Hardcover (6 February 2020)
Publisher: W&n; 01 edition
Language: English, 224 pages
ASIN: B07V82MHBB (Kindle Edition)
ISBN-10: 1474611249 (Hardcover)
Guide Price: £8.99 - Kindle Edition | £10.65 - Hardcover
Click to buy Kindle Edition | Hardcover
About the author
Dr. Adam Rutherford is a science writer and broadcaster. On radio, he is the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s flagship science programme, Inside Science, as well as many documentaries, on the inheritance of intelligence, on MMR and autism, human evolution, astronomy and art, science and cinema, scientific fraud, and the evolution of sex. On television, his latest series, The Beauty of Anatomy, is on BBC4 in August 2014, on the role of the human dissection in art. Adam also presented the award-winning Horizon: Playing God (BBC2, Jan 2012); The Gene Code (BBC4, Apr 2011); and the award-winning The Cell (BBC4, Sept 2009). Adam is a movie geek, and has been scientific advisor to Björk’s movie Biophilia Live, and worked on World War Z, The Secret Service (2014) and Ex Machina (2015).
His critically acclaimed first book, Creation – on the origin and future of life - was published in 2013, and was nominated for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize. He is currently writing his second, and third.
Adam has a PhD in Genetics, a degree in evolutionary biology, is an honorary Research Fellow at UCL, and is a former Editor at the journal Nature.
