About this item
Everything you need to know about race (but were afraid to ask) . MYTH: Early Europeans were white. REALITY: The first Europeans had dark skin, black, curly hair and blue eyes. MYTH: Between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago, a 'cognitive revolution' led to the birth of culture in Europe. REALITY: Modern intelligence evolved tens of thousands of years earlier, leading to the birth of culture in Africa. Does racism have a rational basis in science? In Skin Deep, Gavin Evans tackles head-on the debate that has been raging on internet message boards and in academic journals. No longer limited to the fringe, race-based studies of intelligence have been discussed by thinkers such as Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson. If these studies were true, they would provide an intellectual justification for inequality and discrimination. Examining the latest research on how intelligence develops and laying out new discoveries in genetics, palaeontology, archaeology and anthropology to unearth the truth about our shared past, Skin Deep demolishes the pernicious myth that our race is our destiny and instead reveals what really makes us who we are. (Stephen Oppenheimer, author of Out of Eden: The Peopling of the World and The Origins of the British)
About the Author
I was born in London and grew up in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, San Marcos, Texas and Johannesburg where I was intensely involved in anti-apartheid activities in the 1980s, both semi-legally and in the underground. Along the way I completed degrees in economic history, an LLB law degree and an MA and PhD in politics while working as a journalist for several South African newspapers and as a foreign correspondent for IPS. I returned to London early in 1993 and continued to work as writer and broadcaster. I also wrote a series of boxing books - 'Prince of the Ring' and 'Wicked!' on Naseem Hamed, 'Mama's Boy' on Lennox Lewis and 'Kings of the Ring' on heavyweight history. I wrote a memoir, 'Dancing Shoes is Dead' (Doubleday & Black Swan) , which was shortlisted for the Alan Paton non-fiction prize. My last two books have related to genetics. Two years ago I wrote 'Black Brain, White Brain: is intelligence skin-deep? ' (Thistle & Jonathan Ball) , which was shortlisted for the Recht Malan non-fiction prize. It critiques racist IQ theories, and race science more generally. My latest book is 'Mapreaders & Multitaskers: men, women, nature, nurture' (Thistle) , which argues that the differences in the minds and brains of men and women are hugely exaggerated. My next book, 'The Story of Colour: a voyage through the hidden messages of the spectrum' (Michael O'Mara) will be published in March 2018. I currently lecture at Birkbeck College, University of London, and at Cardiff University. I live in North London and have two grown-up daughters and when not writing or lecturing I run marathons and shorter distances.
