Adventures in Biology and Bunk
Stephen Cox · 2018
John Langdon-Davies would be the last person to expect that The New Age of Faith might sway public opinion to any great extent. During the 1920s there was a craze for explanations of history and society based on race and genetics. "Nordics" were credited with the responsibility for true civilization, and families such as the "Jukeses" were used to exemplify genetic incompetence. Isabel Paterson opposed this intellectual craze, as she opposed all others. No matter; it is vastly refreshing to come across such a witty and unsentimental exposure of current fallacies concerning genetics, "racial superiorities," and the human aspects of biology generally. Mr. Langdon-Davies is a working scientist, not a popular publicist. Mr. A. E. Wiggam records that she possessed "great beauty, a strong will, extreme intellectual vigor and a mental grasp akin to rapacity."