History of Race, Evolution,
and Behavior
J. P. Rushton's book Race, Evolution, and Behavior collected and analyzed
many of the data sets on race differences in brain size and intelligence
and personality and temperament first noted by Darwin, Galton, and other
19th century visionaries. Using evidence from psychology, anthropology,
sociology and other scientific disciplines, Race, Evolution, and Behavior
shows there are at least three biological races (subspecies) of man -
Orientals (i.e., Mongoloids or Asians), Blacks (i.e., Negroids or
Africans), and Whites (i.e., Caucasoids or Europeans).
There are recognizable profiles for the three major racial groups on brain
size, intelligence, personality and temperament, sexual behavior, and
rates of fertility, maturation and longevity. On average, Orientals and
their descendants around the world fall at one end of the continuum,
Blacks and their descendants around the world fall at the other end of the
continuum, Europeans regularly fall in between. This worldwide pattern
implies evolutionary and genetic, rather than purely social, political,
economic, or cultural causes.
Race, Evolution, and Behavior was originally brought out by Transaction
Publishers in 1995 and widely reviewed in the academic and popular media.
The 1st edition was deemed sufficiently important that Takuya Kura, an
ethologist at the University of Kyoto, and his brother Kenya Kura, an
economist at the University of San Diego, translated it into Japanese. It
was published in 1996 by Hakuhin-sha of Tokyo. Transaction published a 2nd
edition in 1997 with a new Afterword, which they also released in
paperback. In 1999 they produced a "Special Abridged Edition" which
presented the same research in a condensed and popularly written style,
similar to that used for articles in Discover Magazine, Reader's Digest,
and Scientific American.
A firestorm of controversy engulfed Transaction's 1999 Special Abridged
Edition and Transaction felt forced to relinquish the copyright. When it
was mailed out to thousands of academics, the Progressive Sociologists, a
self-proclaimed radical group within the American Sociological
Association, and some other self-styled "anti-racist" individuals and
groups, particularly among anthropologists, objected to its distribution
and threatened Transaction with loss of a booth at annual meetings,
advertising space in journals, and access to mailing lists if they
continued to send it out.
Transaction caved in to this pressure, withdrew from publishing the book,
and even apologized for having distributed it. They claimed that their
copyright should never have appeared on the Special Abridged Edition and
that it had "all been a mistake." Transaction's letter of apology appeared
on the inside front cover of their flagship journal Society
(January/February, 2000). Accounts of the affair appeared in the Chronicle
of Higher Education (January 14, 2000), Canada's National Post (January
31, 2000), Anthropology News (April, 2000), and elsewhere.
Why the attempt to trash or suppress this book? Because there is no
stronger taboo today than talking about race. In many cases, just being
accused of "racism" can get you fired. Some vocal groups in academia and
the media simply forbid an open discussion of race. It is difficult to
disagree with Charles Murray's (1996, p. 575) conclusion in his analysis
of the aftermath to The Bell Curve controversy, that in regard to
heritable variation and race, science has "become self-censored and
riddled with taboos -- in a word, corrupt."
The goal of all editions of Race, Evolution, and Behavior has been purely
scientific - to describe and explain the world around us as it really is.
The book has no policy suggestions or programs to offer, but it does
suggest that decision makers would benefit from knowing the facts about
race. Both science and justice depend on truth. Both should reject error
and falsehood, however well meant.
