'This book's primary subject
is a particular way of thinking and talking about race: the scientific
way. But The Race Gallery 's broader theme is that of how we think and
talk about race in general. We do so at inordinate length, yet with
extreme anxiety: we feel that the subject is covered by a taboo, but we
don't know exactly what the rules of the taboo are. It seems important,
if not obligatory, to discuss cultural differences, but dangerous even
to mention physical differences. At the same time that we feel
compelled to do it, we are profoundly uncertain about how to think
about race.' - The Race Gallery
This site is devoted to discussing how
science deals with the issue of race, and how scientific - or
pseudoscientific - ideas about race circulate through society as a
whole. It is based on my book of the same name, and contains a chapter of it.
The site was updated with brief reports
from September 1995 to December 1997. These entries can be read on the Short Notes pages. Longer texts are linked from Articles.
I now maintain a personal site; my homepage contains links to articles by me and to
information about my books. I hope you'll be interested in some of this
material, much of which concerns the relationships between biology,
evolution, psychology and society.
Marek Kohn
The
Race Gallery: The
Return of Racial Science was
published in hardback
by Jonathan Cape in 1995, and in
paperback by Vintage in 1996. Copyright Marek
Kohn;
artwork copyright Random House.
"Masterly
... elegant, timely
and devastating ... A book that is unafraid of looking hard at tough
questions ... and succeeds brilliantly" -
Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian (London), Paperback Pick of the Week
"Learned, well-written and fresh" - Matt Ridley, Sunday
Telegraph
"Fair-minded, compact and luminous ... Cool, clear and
extremely timely" - Eric Korn, The Guardian
"Invaluable" - Tom Nairn, London Review of Books
