Review of Race and Modern Science

Reviews the book, Race and Modern Science by Robert E. Kuttner (1967). The volume was planned as a return to a "scientific" treatment of race, and a bringing to light of matters of "empirical fact." It is based on "a recognition of a natural fact, that human populations can be distinguished on the basis of the frequency and incidence of hereditary traits," and the belief that "improved research techniques have indicated that these differences are more numerous than might have been suspected as recently as a decade ago." The reader finds the volume something of an incongruity in that despite its editor's appeal for increased objectivity, all 16 of the papers appear to have been selected to counter the UNESCO Statement on Race published in 1961 under the title Race and Science, which is described as "a veritable Bible for egalitarians." Race and Modern Science is undoubtedly informative and raises questions that have to be taken seriously, but its "modernity" is questionable, and its scientific detachment is dubious. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)