In academic journals and on internet message boards, certain scientists and thinkers are laying siege to one of the great taboos. Could it be, they ask, that racism has a rational basis in science? These ideas are no longer limited to the fringe: race-based studies of intelligence have been discussed by thinkers such as Steven Pinker, Sam Harris, and Jordan Peterson. If true, it would provide an intellectual foundation for so many of the attitudes that characterize the right wing, justifying inequality and discrimination.

Gavin Evans tackles the nature versus nurture debate head-on, examining the latest studies on how intelligence develops and laying out new discoveries in genetics, paleontology, archaeology, and anthropology to unearth the truth about our shared past. In doing so, Skin Deep demolishes the pernicious myth that our race is our destiny and instead reveals what really makes us who we are.