doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.10.004
Book review Lynn Richard, Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis, Washington Summit Books, Augusta, GA, 2005, 318 pp., US$34.95, ISBN 1-59368-020-1 Lynnffs book represents the culmination of more than a quarter of a centuryffs work on race dif- ferences in intelligence. It was in 1977 that he first ventured into this field—some would say mine- field—with the publication of two papers on IQ in Japan and Singapore. Both showed that the East Asians obtained higher means than White Europeans in the United States and Britain. These initial studies were criticised, but the present book lists 60 studies of the IQs of indigenous East Asians all of which confirm the original claim. Most studies of race differences in intelligence have been conducted and discussed in local con- texts. In the United States they have been largely concerned with the IQs of Whites, Blacks, Hispan- ics, Asians and Native American Indians. In Australia they have been concerned with the low IQ of the Aborigines, and in New Zealand with the low IQ of the Maoris. Although a few theorists have taken a global perspective and posited genetic and evolutionary explanations for the three macro- races of East Asians, Europeans and Africans (Jensen, 1998; Lynn, 1991; Rushton, 1995), most have typically explained the local differences by cultural factors such as poverty and racism. Lynnffs book extends the global perspective well beyond the three-macro races. He reviews more than 500 published IQ studies world wide from the beginning of the twentieth century up to the present, devoting a chapter to each of the ten ‘‘genetic clusters’’ or population groups identified by Cavalli-Sforza, Menozzi, and Piazza (1994), which Lynn regards as ‘‘races.’’ He concludes that the East Asians (Chinese, Japanese and Koreans) have the highest mean IQ at 105. Europeans follow with an IQ of 100. Some way below these are the Inuit or Eskimos (IQ 91), South East Asians (IQ 87), Native American Indians (IQ 87), Pacific Isl…