A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy, with Diaspora Peoples

by Kevin B. MacDonald

This book attempts to understand an ancient people in terms of modern evolutionary biology. A basic idea is that Judaism is a group evolutionary strategy-what one might term an evolutionarily significant way for a group of people to get on in the world. The book documents several theoretically interesting aspects of group evolutionary strategies using Judaism as a case study. These topics include the theory of group evolutionary strategies, the genetic cohesion of Judaism, how Jews managed to erect and enforce barriers to gene flow between themselves and other peoples, resource competition between Jews and non-Jews, how Jews managed to have a high level of charity within their communities and at the same time prevented free-riding, how some groups of Jews came to have such high IQ's, and how Judaism developed in antiquity. This book was originally published in 1994 by Praeger Publishers. The Writers Club edition contains a new preface, Diaspora Peoples, describing several interesting group evolutionary The Gypsies, the Hutterites and Amish, the Calvinists and Puritans, and the Overseas Chinese.

Genres: History, Psychology, Judaism, Politics, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Sociology

598 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Kevin MacDonald is an American psychologist. He is a retired professor of psychology at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), best known for his controversial application of evolutionary psychology to characterize Jewish behavior as a "group evolutionary strategy." He is currently the editor of the Occidental Observer, which he says covers "white identity, white interests, and the culture of the West." He is the author of more than 100 scholarly papers and reviews, and he is the author of Social and Personality Development: An Evolutionary Synthesis (1988), A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy (1994), Separation and Its Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism (1998), and The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements (1998). He has also edited three books, Sociobiological Perspectives on Human Development (1988), Parent-Child Play: Descriptions and Implications (1994), and Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Development (2004).

In October 2004, MacDonald accepted the Jack London Literary Prize from The Occidental Quarterly, using the award ceremony as an occasion to argue for the need for a "white ethnostate" to maintain high white birthrates.

In 2010, MacDonald accepted a position as one of the eight members of the board of directors of the American Freedom Party, which declares America a white Christian nation and advocates for limiting "non-white" immigration into the United States.

Reviews

[Vagabond of Letters, DLitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review and synopsis forthcoming.

cxiv + 448pp

Not as enlightening as SAID or CofC; much of the material presented here is repeated with some alteration between those two other works (SAID has a similar focus; CofC is entirely different but must represent some of this material to frame its own arguments as a standalone work). Nonduplicated information is in the title: the suite of genetic and culture separatist strategies which comprise Judaism. Jewish eugenics is mentioned more in SAID and even 'The Bell Curve' though the theoretical basis for it and speculation as to how it formed is elucidated here.

The 2004 paperback reprint includes an additional 100+ page preface detailing other (mainly diaspora) group evolutionary strategies, such as the Spartan, Gypsy, Overseas Chinese, Amish, Mennonite, and even Puritan (!), comparing and contrasting their genetic closure, level of collectivism and authoritarianism, economic/niche specialization, parenting strategies, and typical relation to their host societies to those of the Jews.

[Wayne Costigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the authors first work in a trilogy on what a minority of us consider THE most important question facing Western Civilization. And with the astonishing rise of the NeoCons with the end of the Cold War, and their nearly complete control of our nation's foreign policy, to include the disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libiya, Syria, the Ukraine, etc. it is vitally important for all concerned patriots to understand just what is going on in this world. Ergo, Prof. Kevin MacDonald's works are the best place to start.

[Private Account · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most interesting ideas I have ever read. Cultures/religions are group survival strategies. Makes perfect sense.

[Jennifer Jacobs · Rating 1 out of 5]

Antisemitic hate manual by a White nationalist little troll!
This book is like a new updated version of Elders of Zion.
Avoid it like Plague!
0 stars

[Da1tonthegreat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kevin MacDonald's Culture of Critique is well known on the dissident right, and deservedly so. A People That Shall Dwell Alone is less recognized, but I would say it's just as insightful. Here we explore the Jewish people from an ecological, evolutionary perspective. MacDonald maintains a true objectivity throughout (rare for this subject), acknowledging but not leaning into either philo-Semitism or anti-Semitism. The Jews have managed to maintain their genetic and cultural cohesion for centuries. This book examines how and why, as well as their impact on host societies and what we can learn from their success.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book on dual-inheritance theory that attempts to understand Judaism as an evolutionary group strategy, as a cultural experiment in living. I’m finding it hard to reconcile the criticism I read about this book on Wikipedia and the actual book itself, leading me to assume that people have criticized it without giving it its fair due, most likely because of the subject matter.

[Jukka Aakula · Rating 4 out of 5]

My book review in the Finnish language https://sarastuslehti.com/2015/01/05/...

[VEL – The Contemporary Heretic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every ethnic group sees itself as special. Therefore, the Jewish claim to be special—the ‘chosen people’—is, of itself, not so special.

But Jews have a better claim than most to actually being accurate in their assessment.

The Jewish impact on world history is vastly disproportionate. The two largest world religions—Christianity and Islam—both derive from Judaism, and Jews are vastly overrepresented among leading scientists, celebrities and billionaires.

Yet the most remarkable achievement of Jews is their very survival as a people, despite conquest, banishment and persecution, not to mention secularization.

“From an evolutionary perspective, the uniqueness of… Jews lies in their being the only people to successfully remain intact and resist normal assimilative processes after living for very long periods as a minority in other societies” (p86).

Here, two groups might assert a competing claim:
1) Gypsies;
2) Upper-caste Hindus.

Yet Macdonald describes the Indian caste system as “a genetically fairly open group evolutionary strategy” (p25), as high-caste males could take lower-caste concubines (p31).

But biblical passages also envisage the concubinage of foreign women (e.g. Deuteronomy 20:14; Numbers 31:18).

Macdonald emphasizes the lower status of the offspring born of these unions (p57-8). But the same is true of the illegitimate offspring fathered by upper-caste men, who inherit the caste of the mother.

Cultural Group Selection
Macdonald explains Jewish survival through cultural group selection.

He has in mind, not biological, but cultural evolution.

We might then characterise it as a memetic theory, in accordance with Richard Dawkins’ concept of memes as units of cultural evolution.

Dawkins famously described religions as viruses of the mind that infect human hosts.

The success of a religion depends on its infectiousness. This, in turn, depends on the behaviours the infection induces.

Viruses produce symptoms like sneezing and diarrhea because these help the virus infect new hosts via the bodily fluids expelled.

Religions also produce behaviours that promote their spread. Christians are admonished to proselytise; Muslims to wage Jihad.

Macdonald cites the Shakers, a 18th century Christian sect, as a religion which, because of its precepts (i.e. celibacy), died out (p8).

But a small Shaker community survives, since, though celibate, they did proselytize.

In contrast, a religion forbidding both reproduction and proselytism would never spread beyond its founder and hence never come to the attention of historians at all.

A Closed Strategy
Whereas Shakers renounced reproduction but practised proselytism, Jews did the opposite.

Jews are admonished by scripture to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ (p51-4), marry within the faith (p54-62) and indoctrinate offspring (p326-335)—but Jews do not proselytise and intermarriage is forbidden.

It is sometimes claimed that Judaism was once a proselyting religion, but Macdonald dismisses this as “apologetics” designed to enable Judaism to compete against the universalism of Hellenism and, later, Christianity (p92).

Macdonald characterizes the Jewish strategy as:

“Allow converts and intermarriage at a formal theoretical level, but minimise them in practice” (p97).

Thus, prospective converts are traditionally turned away thrice, required to undertake religious study, and undergo circumcision.

Israelites did, Macdonald claims, forcibly convert Gallileans and Nethinim.

But converts and their descendants faced discrimination and were genetically quarantined from the Jewish population through marriage prohibitions, which remained in force indefinitely (p91-113).

Racial Purity
Macdonald refers to Judaism as designed to preserve the “racial purity” of the group, this very phrase, or variants, being used by Macdonald on over twenty pages.

This is a phrase more associated with Nazis than Jews. But, according to Macdonald, this is no accident:

“Powerful group strategies tend to beget opposing group strategies that in many ways provide a mirror image of the group which they combat” (Separation and Its Discontents: pxxxvii)

“National Socialist ideology was a mirror image of traditional Jewish ideology… [Both had] a strong emphasis on racial purity and on the primacy of group ethnic interests rather than individual interests… [and] were greatly concerned with eugenics” (Ibid: p194).

Genetics
In PTSDA, Macdonald relies on phenotypic indicators of genetic distance (i.e. blood-groups, fingerprint patterns) to assess the success of Jews in reproductively isolating themselves (p34-40).

Now, genetic data is available. In general, this has confirmed Macdonald's conclusions regarding:

1—Jews’ Middle Eastern origins
2—Affinities among different Jewish populations—Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi, even Lemba—but not Ethiopian Jews

But with one proviso—Ashkenazim trace a substantial part of their ancestry to Southern Europe, seemingly from Jewsish men taking Genile wives.

Economic Success
Macdonald identifies key elements of the Jewish group evolutionary strategy that enable them to economically outcompete host populations:

1—Collectivism
2—Emphasis on education and high-investment parenting
3—Intelligence

Macdonald characterizes Judaism as hyper-collectivist, in accordance with the distinction between collectivist and individualist cultures .

In the Middle East, all groups are relatively collectivist.

But Jews were, Macdonald claims, especially group-oriented even compared to other Middle Eastern groups.

“Jews alone of all the subject peoples in the Roman Empire engaged in prolonged, even suicidal wars against the government in order to attain national sovereignty… [and] only… Jews, of all subject peoples were exempt from having to sacrifice to the Empire’s Gods, and… were… allowed its own courts and… ex officio government” (p356-8).

This tendency towards ethnocentrism is augmented through endogamous and consanguineous marriage, which increase the level of relatedness among individuals, facilitating cooperation and trust.

Niether residence among, now intermarriage with, individualistic Europeans has ameliorated this tendency, according to Macdonald.

As evidence of clannishness, Macdonald cites the double-standards imposed by Judaic law, such as Jews being allowed to charge interest on loans to Gentiles, but not to Jews.

Some examples of these double-standards were, he admits, tempered from medieval times, but this was done only “to prevent ‘hillul hashem’ (disgracing the Jewish religion)”, i.e. to avoid inciting antisemitism (p229).

Collectivism and Capitalism
Ironically, Jewish collectivism gave Jews a particular advantage in individualist Western capitalist economies.

In game theory, a population composed of individualists, with no preference for one trading partner over another, is vulnerable to invasion by a collectivist invader with strong in-group bias.

“Jewish economic activity has historically been characterized by high levels of within-group economic cooperation and patronage. Jewish elites overwhelmingly tended to employ other Jews in their enterprises” (p220)

Both kinship ties and a common language (Yiddish) meant that business links and lines of credit crossed international boundaries, giving Jews an advantage in an already increasingly globalized economy.

Middleman Minority?
Jews represent the classic middleman minority, acting both as economic middlemen and intermediaries between subject and ruler.

“The prototypical Jewish role as an instrument of governmental oppression has been that of the tax farmer” (p175).

Jews’ status as endogamous aliens, Macdonald argues, preadapted them for this role.

“Precisely because their interests, as a genetically segregated group, were maximally divergent from those of the exploited population… [with] no family or kinship ties (and thus no loyalty) to the people… being ruled” (p172)

They could therefore be entrusted to extract maximum taxes with all necessary ruthlessness.

“The archetype of the well placed courtier who helps other Jews, while oppressing the local population, is Joseph [in the Torah]” (p175)

By building up stockpiles of grain and selling it back to the Egyptians, Joseph reduced the latter to bondage (Genesis 47:13-21).

Thus, while the masses resented Jews, rulers acted as patrons and protectors.

But protection could only go so far, and Jews also served another function for rulers—as scapegoats. Macdonald quotes Blalock as observing:

“The price the [middleman] minority pays for protection in times of minimal stress is to be placed on the front lines of battle in any showdown between the elite and the peasant groups” (p173).

IQ
Macdonald estimates the average Ashkenazi IQ at around a standard deviation above the white mean, equal to the difference between white and black Americans.

Yet, despite the the g factor, he reports a large difference in the verbal and nonverbal IQ of Jews, with the latter around the European average but the former some two standard deviations higher.

This may explain the relative lack of famous Jewish engineers and architects, and why:

“Jewish economic activity… tended not to be characterized by technological innovation related to mechanical abilities” (p291)

This, in turn, lent “superficial credence to the anti-Semitic charge that Jews were not innovators, but only appropriated the innovations of others” (p291).

Regarding the cause of Jewish intelligence, Macdonald observes that wealthy Jews had more surviving offspring than poor Jews and infers that this would produce an increase in intelligence, as wealth correlates with IQ (p285-6).

But this was true for all people. The rich had more surviving progeny because they could afford to feed more offspring.

But wealth may have been especially correlated with intelligence among Jews, as they were concentrated in occupations requiring intellectual ability—e.g. moneylending.

Poor Jews were also sometimes forbidden from marrying. They were also victims of discrimination, which, he infers, may have motivated them to abandon Judaism, raising the IQ of the remaining population.

But he provides no hard data showing that poor Jews did indeed abandon Judaism—and Jewish charity may have disincentivized defection (p312-9).

More plausible is his claim that Jews low in self-control may have abandoned Judaism, because they lacked the self-discipline to comply with the ritual demands of Judaism (p312-9).

Macdonald also attributes the higher average IQ of Jews to eugenics, citing Talmudic authority regarding the desirability of marrying the daughter of a scholar, or marrying one’s daughter to a scholar (p275-88).

In contrast, celibacy was imposed on Christian religious scholars, which Galton surmised may have had a dysgenic effect on Christians.

Today, there is an inverse association between religiosity and IQ, but, in the past, theology may have been the only form of scholarship it was safe for Jews, Christians or even closet atheists to undertake.

Anyone investigating more substantial matters (e.g. whether the Earth orbited the Sun or vice versa) was in danger of being burnt at the stake if he reached the wrong (i.e. the right) conclusion.

Priests
Macdonald describes the special status accorded the Tribe of Levi, and the priestly Kohen line, as “from an evolutionary perspective… a masterstroke because it resulted in the creation of hereditary groups whose interests were bound up with the fate of the entire group” (p385).

“The presence of the priesthood among the Babylonian exiles and its absence among the Syrian exiles… may explain why the latter … assimilated and the former did not” (p394).

Yet one could argue that this arrangement, especially the hereditary right of the Kohaním to payment, would produce resentment in other tribes and hence division.

Conscious Design or Random Mutation?
Biological adaptions emerge without conscious design, through random mutation and selection.

But Macdonald contends that, though Moses, like Lycurgus of Sparta, was likely mythical, the systems developed in their names “have all the appearance of being human contrivances” (p395).

Indeed, there were multiple authors.

“The Israelite system has been so successful in its persistence precisely because crucial aspects of the strategy were continually changed… to meet current contingencies” (p396).

Thus, Jewish writings authored in Exile extol different traits than the martial values extoled in the Books of Deuteronomy and Joshua, while the establishment of Israel presaged a return to martial values (p318).

In proposing that the Jewish evolutionary strategy was consciously designed, Macdonald credits the authors of Biblical texts with remarkable foresight.

It also casts them as a sort of metaphoric premodern Elders of Zion.

This suggests that Macdonald’s thesis comes close to a conspiracy theory.

Indeed, if one goes through the book replacing ‘Jewish group evolutionary strategy’ with ‘Jewish conspiracy’, it would read much like the Protocols.

Cultural or Biological Evolution?
Since Judaism is a closed strategy, it results, not only the survival of Judaism, but also the survival of Jewish genes, and Macdonald refers to the strategy as designed to do just this.

Often, this makes Macdonald’s theory read more like a theory of biological than of cultural evolution and could cause confusion. Indeed, I suspect Macdonald has even confused himself.

In his opening chapter, he writes:

“A group strategy does not require a genetic barrier between the strategizing group and the rest of the population… [and] strategizing groups can range from complete genetic segregation from the surrounding population to complete panmixia” (p15; p27).

But he later writes:

“In order to qualify as an evolutionary strategy, genetic segregation must be actively maintained by the strategizing group” (p85).

Culture of Critique
This confusion carries into The Culture of Critique (reviewed here, a sequel to the present work, where Macdonald envisages secular scholars of Jewish ethnicity—including Marxists, psychoanalysts and cultural anthropologists—as continuing to pursue a Jewish group evolutionary strategy even though they have abandoned the religion in whose teachings this strategy is allegedly contained.

‘The Culture of Critique’ is, then, theoretically flawed.

However, ‘A People that Shall Dwell Alone’ represents a tenable and often persuasive theory of survival and success of Jewish people over the centuries, and it is regrettable that its reputation has been overshadowed by Macdonald’s more recent writings, political activism and reputation as an antisemite.

Full (vastly overlong) review here.

[LP · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book (hereafter, "PTSDA") gives evolutionary psychology a black eye. It's so grotesquely inept and speculative that at least one leader in the field denies that MacDonald IS an evolutionary psychologist.
Its argument in brief: Judaism evolved as a strategy aimed at maximizing Jewish genetic fitness and survival. Its group strategies include: group coercion, segregation, intra-group altruism, social control, and collectivism.

PTSDA's entire discourse on Jewish collectivism would be laughable were it not so frequently dishonest. MacDonald observes that "Conformity to group attitudes and behavior is an extremely important aspect of social control in traditional Jewish communities." Actually, BY DEFINITION, conformity is an extremely important aspect of social control in ANY traditional community, Gentile included. Conversely, lack of conformity to group goals, self-reliance, individual responsibility and the desire to "find oneself" are modern qualities. Curiously, PTSDA doesn't seem to recognize these qualities in American Jews, although the term "self-actualization" was coined by the Jewish psychologist Maslow. Harry Triandis, a leading theorist on collectivism, upon whom MacDonald relies heavily for support told me many years ago that: "Most American Jews tend to be idiocentric [individualistic] although they are probably allocentric [collectivist] in family matters (less divorce)."

PTSDA also ignores the plethora of studies showing that Jewish families score higher on autonomy than any other ethnic/religious group. As Jews are also more secular & liberal, they are LESS, not more, likely to subscribe to the fundamentalist (collectivist) notion that "ingroup norms are universally valid" or that ingroup authorities merit unquestioned obedience. Nor do Jews gravitate to the extreme right wing, with its collectivist tendency toward "distrust of and unwillingness to cooperate with outgroups" (immigrants, blacks, gays). Jews also donate proportionately less charity to Jewish institutions than Christians donate to Christian institutions -- about half vs. 70%. So much for the "high degree of nepotism and within-group charity" PTSDA purports to find among Jews. PTSDA's own source (Ellman) notes that "as late as 1950, 57% of American Christians polled said they would not marry a Jew." Why then doesn't MacDonald call mid-century CHRISTIANS collectivist?

Evidence refuting PTSDA's claim that Jews have been distinctively authoritarian through history can be found in the books's own voluminous references. They indicate that: 1) the abject gratitude commonly expected of children toward their parents in most other (including European) societies was less salient among Jews; 2) Jewish diaspora communities were generally less punitive than their Gentile neighbors; 3) at a time when the Church barred the lower classes from reading, all classes of Jews mixed together in the synagogues and Beit Midrash, where they read and DEBATED the Talmud together with their rabbis.

MacDonald is aware of this, and not just because the material can be found in the works he cites. Elsewhere, when he is discussing not collectivism but high-investment parenting by Jews he readily describes how it encourages Jewish children to "express opinions and contribute to solving problems."

More dishonesty: to find evidence of a Jewish eugenic strategy, PTSDA, (citing Ellman) contends that "Not surprisingly a recent survey [NJPS] indicated that the group least likely to defect from Judaism was the highly educated." Actually Ellman contrasts this ONE highly ambiguous study with 'SEVERAL' others which found the opposite to be true.

PTSDA asserts that Jews are innately more intelligent. Yet the very citation and page number it uses for support contains a passage that undermines its case -- so PTSDA omits it. It reads: Without "specific knowledge" of the 'genetic mechanisms' involved, "we have no way to decide whether genetic factors have contributed to the intellectual excellence of the Jewish group. The means to a solution do not exist..." (Vogel, 609). As for Oriental Jews, who MacDonald suggests are innately less intelligent, studies show that Oriental Jewish children raised in the same kibbutz environment as Ashkenazim score comparably on IQ tests.

Some closing observations: 1) the eugenics practices PTSDA purports to find among Ashkenazim (intermarriage among the intellectually gifted) were rare among the Sephardim, who outnumbered the Ashkenazim in medieval times and produced some of the greatest minds of early modern Europe. (Conspicuously, given its large bibliography and theme, PTSDA fails to cite Feuer's well-known refutation of the sociobiological theory of Jewish intelligence). 2) Infanticide, arguably a 'eugenic' practice that disproportionately claimed the lives of the poor, fatherless or handicapped, was exceedingly rare among Jews. Might we not propose a "eugenic advantage" for Christians based on the same "logic" that informs PTSDA? 3) No hard evidence was presented for the "thesis" that Jews are BIOLOGICALLY PREDISPOSED to psychological traits such as collectivism and ethnocentrism. 4) PTSDA's claim that the haverim attempted genetic discrimination against lower-class Jews is baseless. 5) Notwithstanding sporadic cultural and economic rivalries, the assertion that Jews discriminated against one another based on genetic distance is easily refuted. For example, although a recent study suggests that Yemeni Jews are genetically distant from even Oriental Jews, evidence for any specifically anti-Yemeni behavior is conspicuously absent. 6) Concerning the "purely instrumental" economic relations that Jews allegedly practiced with Gentiles, PTSDA fails to consider how closed Christian guilds were or how instrumental was the economic behavior of Gentiles-- towards Jews and each other. 7) PTSDA highlights parochialism in Judaism, but omits the vast literature on Jewish universalism and cosmopolitanism. 8) In arguing for Jewish verbal over visuospatial intelligence, PTSDA must ascribe the disproportionate contributions of Jewish mathematicians, physicists, chemists and inventors to their prodigious verbal skills! 9) If Sephardim really practiced evolutionary group strategy, all should have left Iberia; instead, most stayed, converted and - as a distinctive minority - vanished from history.

Praeger, and perhaps Cal State as well, should be ashamed for letting their academic standards sink so low.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will rate the book in the following dimensions:

Pacing - 4/5
Ability to maintain interest - 4/5
Grammar and Vocabulary - 4/5
Intellectually stimulating material - 5/5
Bibliography and Sources - 5/5

Overall in terms of pacing I definitely think the book lingers on for too long in certain subjects such as how the Jews differ from the gentiles in terms of social organization (i.e. schooling, upbringing, communal meetings etc) but I guess its good to comprehensive and use many examples for some readers. The pace is pretty tolerable otherwise especially given how long the book is and the nature of the content is covers. If you are of low attention span and don't plan on thinking too deeply about concepts and logic you read; then this book is not for you.

The book is quite interesting to offer an evolutionary and socio-biological outlook on the Jews and uses numerous examples historically to add weight to its interpretation. I always find it strange that evolutionary pressures being applied to humans being a taboo subject, we clearly evolved like any other animals under similar kinds of selection pressures so it would be sensible to assume we have preferred to select for certain traits over time that lead to a greater advantage in sexual reproduction (when it comes to Jews, I think its ethno-centric mate guarding and extreme out-group hostility).

The grammar and vocab seemed overall acceptable certain words and phrases do come up again and again and hence can appear to be a bit pedantic but I guess its a more scholarly effort that is to be expected.

Even if you don't agree with the author's central thesis, there is no doubt the book will challenge you both morally and intellectually. It forces to re-examine human conflict from a more evolutionary lens instead of chalking it up to things like economics, politics or religion (which arguably themselves are proxies for resource acquisition and sexual market domination, both essential to an evolutionary outlook)

The book seems to cite numerous sources, both Jewish and gentile, which is strongly appreciated and helps buttress the books claims even more.

Overall excellent read.

[Radu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the author remains controversial, the first book in his series on Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy is remarkably easy to read given the subject material. It presents a three-dimensional view of Judaism as a religion tied to tribal identity and how these function as long-term adaptive strategies for the Jewish people.

The additional chapters on applying this same theoretical framework to other groups (Spartans, Puritans, Roma and other Gypsy groups, Overseas Chinese, etc) were also interesting to read, if not a little short. I would love to see an entire book or series dedicated to each of these groups, if they haven't been written already.

[JW · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first volume of Kevin MacDonald’s trilogy on Judaism from the perspective of evolutionary social psychology. A dry, academic work, but well argued and fascinating. The book’s title is its thesis. Perhaps the controversy resulted from who (an outsider) was saying it, not from what was being said.

[Daniel Ze · Rating 1 out of 5]

An attempt to obscure infantile antisemitism in academictheory.

[Jeff Cliff · Rating 1 out of 5]

As usual, Alex Linder, recorded this audiobook with a deep, clear reading voice and generally did a good job of letting the book stand on its own merits, and was helpful in recording this (copyright restricted) book for posterity. But it is clearly written to be read, on paper.

Linder complained a little at the end that MacDonald was doing scholarly work in this book but honestly, as scholarly work, it seemed lacking. The book itself is just...not very persuasive. He was still rambling about Josephus about 2/3rds through the book - which is not a good sign if you're seriously trying to make an argument like this book does. There is probably a sliver of truth somewhere in there, that there's a group strategy that the jews, as a group, exhibit but if this book is the only evidence of it it can be safely written off. Skip this book and read Josephus in its original form, or if you're in the mood for something more paranoid, check out the protocols. Or better yet, check out E O Wilson (which Linder seems to agree is worth reading).

[Илья Дескулин · Rating 5 out of 5]

The all-time HBD-classic. MacDonald might overestimate cohesion and furthering collective aims of secular Jewry, but his analysis of their religious counterparts is very persuasive.