Human Diversity

The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class

By: Charles Murray

Narrated by: David Baker

All people are equal but, as Human Diversity explores, all groups of people are not the same -- a fascinating investigation of the genetics and neuroscience of human differences.
The thesis of Human Diversity is that advances in genetics and neuroscience are overthrowing an intellectual orthodoxy that has ruled the social sciences for decades. The core of the orthodoxy consists of three dogmas:

- Gender is a social construct.

- Race is a social construct.

- Class is a function of privilege.

The problem is that all three dogmas are half-truths. They have stifled progress in understanding the rich texture that biology adds to our understanding of the social, political, and economic worlds we live in.

It is not a story to be feared. "There are no monsters in the closet," Murray writes, "no dread doors we must fear opening." But it is a story that needs telling. Human Diversity does so without sensationalism, drawing on the most authoritative scientific findings, celebrating both our many differences and our common humanity.

Critic reviews

PRAISE FOR COMING APART:

"I'll be shocked if there's another book this year as important as Charles Murray's Coming Apart."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px Arial}David Brooks, The New York Times

"Mr. Murray's sobering portrait is of a nation where millions of people are losing touch with the founding virtues that have long lent American lives purpose, direction and happiness."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px Arial}Wall Street Journal

"'Coming Apart brims with ideas about what ails America."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px Arial}Economist

"[An] incisive, alarming, and hugely frustrating book about the state of American society."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px Arial}Bloomberg Businessweek

"[A] timely investigation into a worsening class divide no one can afford to ignore."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px Arial}Publisher's Weekly

"[Murray] argues for the need to focus on what has made the U.S. exceptional beyond its wealth and military power...religion, marriage, industriousness, and morality."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px Arial}Booklist (Starred Review)

Material too dense for Audio book

I found the book very informative in the 50K feet level sense. The material though relies on a lot of graphs and statistics that make it hard to follow at the detail level. This would be better in a hard cover format.

Well worth listening to . . . and reading.

Highly, highly recommended to anyone who wants to understand how desperately unscientific much modern educational and social practice really is!

Read this book, after reading Stephen Pinker's "The Blank Slate", written 20 years earlier. Pinker's book describes, somewhat casually, where science was going, 20 odd years ago. Murray's book, published Jan 2020, describes where science has gone -- systematically, repeatedly, confirmedly -- much to the dismay of many Western educators, social workers and sociologists.

Other reviewers have complained that the book is a long slog, with difficult statistics. However if there's another way to convincingly present data that is so unpalatable to Western media and academia, I can't imagine what it might be. And frankly, I'm not sure who listens to, and tries to comprehend, highly complex statistics, while driving in traffic. It's true that if you want to understand all the details of Murray's case, or want to 'fact-check' all his references, then you'll need the printed book. But you'll be able make much more sense of all those details, if you've first gotten the 'big picture' listening to the Audible version.

Thorough and precise review

I particularly like his evaluation of how certain or uncertain various claims and counter-claims are.

Must Read

Charles Murray expansive dive into human diversity using empirical research, trials, and surveys is a must read for anyone who values honesty without bias.

If you've never studied statistics, don't bother.

Sections of this book were slow. Although there is plenty of detail supporting it's concepts, it is very technical and without prior study in this field or in the field of statistics, most readers will be lost. However if it makes sense to you, it is extremely enlightening. The only other negative thing I would mention is that in an audible format you will miss out on about 20% of the content as there are are charts, graphs, etc which are referenced frequently.