Human Diversity

The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class

By: Charles Murray

Narrated by: David Baker

Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Charles Murray (P)2020 Twelve

Critic reviews

"[A] timely investigation into a worsening class divide no one can afford to ignore." (Publisher's Weekly)

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.

Dry, but thorough

High number density in discussion section strengthened confidence in conclusions, but made it hard to follow the argument to conclusion. I think this is unavoidable for books of this type, but still a detractor.

Overall, well written and supported as far as I can tell.

Enlightening

Thoroughly reviews the scientific basis, both psychologically and biologically, of differences between the sexes, races, and ethnic groups. It is very informative and delivered dispassionately.

John Locke is on suicide watch

second time I've listened to this excellent book, also read the hardcover. highly recommended

Purchase the Kindle version not the audio book

The PDF file helps but HUMAN DIVERSITY is still not appropriate for an audio book. I have a major issue with how to rate this audio book because the Kindle version is outstanding, but the audio version is really inappropriate. If you are going to get the audio book download the PDF and follow it as the audio book is listened to. Finally, unless you have a sound background in math and statistics listen to the appendices first.

Comprehensive and impressive work

This is a text that requires, in many cases, the printed material in order to better follow the concepts, esp the statistical constructs, explaining the differences between the gender outcomes. Overall, however, a superb work blending many scientific disciplines so the non-scientist, non-researcher can follow the discussion and arguments made in these fields. Some may walk away frustrated because their camp's beliefs of and about gender identity and equality were not made 100 percent absolute by the data, to date, in the areas covered by the author. Nevertheless, the author in my opinion, made Herculean efforts to present and discuss both sides of the arguments made regarding the male-female calculus of things using evidence gathered through research and rigorous statistical examination. And on it goes, the never ending battle between the TWO genders and their MANY respective agendas.