In this classic work, three eminent scientists expose and dismantle the claims that class, race, and gender inequalities are the products of our biological and genetic inheritances. Not in Our Genes provides a bold and biting critique of biological determinism and sociobiology. In refuting the claim that what individuals can and cannot do is fixed, in essence, by their genetic makeup, the authors offer an important reply to an argument raging far beyond the scientific world and widely affecting our society and our lives. This edition features a new introduction by the authors.

Three eminent scientists analyze the scientific, social, and political roots of biological determinism.

In Nature's Thumbprint, one of the country's foremost psychiatrists and his son, a writer, explore the impact of today's new genetic research on our understanding of human development and personality. Using original case studies of identical twins adopted in infancy and reared apart, this extraordinary book untangles the complex interaction between genetics and experience.

"In this powerful critique, the esteemed historian and philosopher of science Evelyn Fox Keller addresses the nature-nurture debates, including the persistent disputes regarding the roles played by genes and the environment in determining individual traits and behavior. Keller is interested in both how an oppositional "versus" came to be inserted between nature and nurture, and how the distinction on which that opposition depends, the idea that nature and nurture are separable, came to be taken for granted. How, she asks, did the illusion of a space between nature and nurture become entrenched in our thinking, and why is it so tenacious? Keller reveals that the assumption that the influences of nature and nurture can be separated is neither timeless nor universal, but rather a notion that emerged in Anglo-American culture in the late nineteenth century. She shows that the seemingly clear-cut nature-nurture debate is riddled with incoherence. It encompasses many disparate questions knitted together into an indissoluble tangle, and it is marked by a chronic ambiguity in language. There is little consensus about the meanings of terms such as nature, nurture, gene, and environment. Keller suggests that contemporary genetics can provide a more appropriate, precise, and useful vocabulary, one that might help put an end to the confusion surrounding the nature-nurture controversy."--Publisher