The Culture of Critique series
Encyclopedia
The Culture of Critique series comprises Kevin B. MacDonald
's principal writings on Judaism
and Jewish culture:
A People that Shall Dwell Alone 1994
MacDonald describes Judaism
as having (or constituting) a "group evolutionary strategy" aimed to limit exogamy
, enforce cultural segregation, promote in-group charity and economic cooperation, and regulate in-group marriage and births to achieve high levels of intelligence, resource acquisition ability, parenting care, and group allegiance. He examines evidence from Jewish history, culture, and genetics in support of his thesis, arguing that Judaism is based on a strong and possibly genetically based predisposition to ethnocentrism
characteristic of Middle Eastern cultures generally but exacerbated as a result of selective effects resulting from Jewish cultural practices. He analyses the use of the complex and extensive Jewish scriptures and the high prestige of Rabbinic learning as eugenic
mechanisms for promoting Jewish verbal intelligence and dexterity.
Separation and Its Discontents 1998
Building on his work in A People that Shall Dwell Alone, MacDonald examines antisemitism as a test case for an evolutionary analysis of ethnic conflict in general, applying social identity theory to three critical periods of institutionalized antisemitism: the Roman Empire in the fourth century; the Iberian inquisitions from the fourteenth century; and German Nazism in the period 1933-45. He argues that antisemitism can be analysed as a consequence of resource competition between groups in which each group is rationally pursuing its own interests, rather than as a manifestation of irrational malice by non-Jewish out-groups, and concludes that Jews, particularly strongly identified Jews, will be relatively prone to self-deception by ignoring or rationalizing negative information about themselves and their in-group. Finally, he discusses whether Judaism has ceased to be an evolutionary strategy because of the current levels of intermarriage among some groups of diaspora Jews, arguing that it has not ceased to be so and that it continues to flourish.
The Culture of Critique 1998
MacDonald examines Boasian anthropology, political radicalism
, psychoanalysis
, the Frankfurt School
, and The New York Intellectuals
, arguing that Jews dominated these intellectual movements and that a strong sense of Jewish identity was characteristic of the great majority of the individuals in these movements.
He argues that these individuals were pursuing an ethnic agenda in establishing and participating in them, yet he stresses that the Jewish community does not constitute a unified movement and that only a small and elite minority of that community participated in these movements.
Nevertheless, he alleges Jewish efforts to shape United States immigration policy in opposition to the interests of the peoples of non-Jewish European descent, particularly the peoples of Northern and Western Europe. He concludes the book by claiming that intellectual movements he examines are movements that are either Jewish by nature or Jewish-controlled, and that these movements are associated with the deaths of millions of people: "In the 20th century many millions of people have been killed in the attempt to establish Marxist societies based on the ideal of complete economic and social leveling, and many more millions of people have been killed as a result of the failure of Jewish assimilation into European societies ... the result has been a widening gulf between the cultural successes of Jews and Gentiles and a disaster for society as a whole."
Describing the evolution of his thinking over the course of his writing the trilogy, MacDonald says in his preface to the paperback edition of The Culture of Critique:
Understanding Jewish Influence 2004
With introduction by the late Samuel T. Francis, Understanding Jewish Influence outlines what MacDonald claims are the "background traits" of Jewish influence. MacDonald describes these roots as consisting of:
He goes on to relate this influence to current events concerning Zionism
, neoconservatism
, immigration
, and Middle Eastern warfare waged by Western
powers.
, then Art and Entertainment editor of the Culturebox, entitled "Evolutionary Psychology's Anti-Semite," which was followed up by several letters continuing the discussion, and an extended rebuttal by MacDonald. According to Shulevitz, MacDonald's arguments are prescriptive: "Toward the end of the third book, MacDonald lays out his solution for restoring what he calls 'parity' between the Jews and other ethnic groups: systematic discrimination against Jews in college admission and employment and heavy taxation of Jews 'to counter the Jewish advantage in the possession of wealth'". MacDonald replied that in the actual passage from The Culture of Critique quoted by Shulevitz, he was speaking hypothetically of the consequences of competition between ethnic groups of differing abilities.
Mark Potok
of the Southern Poverty Law Center
, an institute that monitors neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, has said of MacDonald that "he put the anti-Semitism under the guise of scholarly work... Kevin MacDonald’s work is nothing but gussied-up anti-Semitism. At base it says that Jews are out to get us through their agenda ... His work is bandied about by just about every neo-Nazi group in America."
The Anti-Defamation League
has included MacDonald in its list of American extremists, Extremism in America, and written a report on MacDonald's views and ties. According to the ADL, MacDonald's views on Jews mimic those of anti-Semites from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
, has published a paper alleging that MacDonald has distorted evidence and chosen evidence selectively for rhetorical purposes.
John Tooby
, past president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society
and a professor of anthropology
at the University of California, Santa Barbara
, insists that MacDonald is not an evolutionary psychologist, and that he advocates models incorporating "group-selection theory", a generally discredited view of natural selection.
In a letter to Slate Magazine, Harvard University psychology professor Steven Pinker
maintained that he has not read MacDonald's books because his theses were unable to pass the threshold of attention-worthiness:
Reviewing MacDonald's A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy in The Jewish Quarterly Review, Sander Gilman, professor of the Liberal Arts and Medicine at the University of Illinois in Chicago describes MacDonalds arguments about a Jewish group evolutionary strategy as "bizarre". According to Gilman, "MacDonald recasts all of the hoary old myths about Jewish psychological difference and its presumed link to Jewish superior intelligence in contemporary sociobiological garb". Gilman also charges that "MacDonald manipulates his sources rather shamelessly", including Gilman’s own work. Gilman concludes that MacDonald's book "is the most recent chapter in the continued myth-building concerning Jewish superior intelligence and achievement. It is, like the numerous earlier works, of interest in how positive images turn into the means by which Jewish difference is stressed and Jewish acculturation is shown to be pathological".
Reviewing Macdonald’s A People That Shall Dwell Alone in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Eugen Schoenfeld, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Georgia State University, noted that "the book is controversial, not only because of its theoretical approach, but also, and perhaps primarily, because of sloppy scholarship". Schoenfeld writes that Macdonald "selects historical incidents that can be used to support his thesis and conveniently omits others that challenge his thesis." Schoenfeld points to what he sees as Macdonald"s "unfamiliarity with both the sociological frame
of reference and historical knowledge", and as an example, notes that Macdonald's comparison of Jewish collectivism during the biblical period with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English individualism "indicates a total ignorance of the impact of industrialization on Western societies".
Reviewing Macdonald’s Separation and Its Discontents in the American Jewish Society Review in 2000, Zev Garber, Professor of Jewish Studies at Los Angeles Valley College, writes that MacDonald works from the assumption that the dual Torah is the blueprint of the eventual Jewish dominion over the world and that he sees contemporary anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and attacks against Israel as "provoked by Jews themselves. In this scenario, Jews imagine themselves as innocent victims of hatred and violence". Garber concludes that Macdonald's "rambling who-is-who-isn't roundup of Jews responsible for the 'Jewish Problem' borders on the irrational and is conducive to misrepresentation".
John Tooby
, the founder of MacDonald's field (evolutionary psychology), criticized MacDonald in an article for Salon.com
in 2000. He wrote, "MacDonald's ideas — not just on Jews — violate fundamental principles of the field."
MacDonald has replied to Tooby, Pinker, Schatz, and Lieberman on his website. In May, 2006, MacDonald responded in FrontPage Magazine to charges of anti-Semitism made by FrontPage Magazine editor Jacob Laksin.
Dan Kriegman, founder of the Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England produced a 50-page analysis criticizing MacDonald's work as "pseudo-scientific theorizing." He wrote that MacDonald "believes his own nonsense." Kriegman remarked in an email, "MacDonald is not the first person to avoid the narcissistic injury of having his ideas rejected by concluding that there was a conspiracy against him rather than becoming aware of the substandard nature [as evidenced in his trilogy] of his thinking."
A History Professor at MacDonald's university, Don Schwarz called MacDonald's claims about Jewish history
"unsupportable." Philosophy Professor Warren Weinstein said that MacDonald's work was not science at all, but "something else, masquerading as science." "It is in the great tradition of Nazi and Stalinist science which clearly and scientifically proved that their respective insanities were objectively true and defensible," he added.
Academic Jaff Schatz has accused MacDonald of misrepresenting and misusing his work.
John Hartung, the associate editor of the Journal of Neurosurgical Anesthesiology and an associate professor of anesthesiology at the State University of New York said that MacDonald's The Culture of Critique was "quite disturbing, seriously misinformed about evolutionary genetics, and suffering from a huge blind spot about the nature of Christianity."
In a review in the journal Shofar, reviewer Jefferson A. Singer wrote that he considered the book to be " written out of a deep and destructive hatred for Jews," and questioned the editorial policy of the books' publisher, Praeger, in "bringing a book of such dubious scientific merit to a larger audience and in giving it an air of legitimacy it does not deserve."
John Tooby
said 'the fact that MacDonald disagrees with evolutionary psychology's claims and principles does not necessarily make him wrong. It just makes him not an evolutionary psychologist.' MacDonald responded, 'Tooby states that I am not an evolutionary psychologist and that I am a fringe scientist. These are very troubling statements highly reminiscent of typical behavior in political organizations, not scientific ones.' Steve Sailer
, a generally conservative writer whose work often focuses on race, stated, "it looks like Tooby has rendered Evolutionary Psychology's claim to be a legitimate branch of science kaput. Tooby appears to believe that it is his personal intellectual property. If so, he should not have given it the generic scientific name "evolutionary psychology", but instead should have given it a personal or ideologically-descriptive name like "Toobyism" or "Politically Correct Darwinism."
In his review of The Culture of Critique in the Human Ethology Bulletin, Frank Salter
of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology
comments on Tooby and Pinker as follows:
Kevin B. MacDonald
Kevin B. MacDonald is a professor of psychology at California State University, Long Beach, best known for his use of evolutionary psychology to inform his study of Judaism as being a "group evolutionary strategy."...
's principal writings on Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and Jewish culture:
- A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism As a Group Evolutionary Strategy, With Diaspora Peoples
- Separation and Its Discontents Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism
- The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements
- Understanding Jewish Influence: A Study in Ethnic Activism
- Can the Jewish Model Help the West Survive?
Series
The first three books constitute what is known as MacDonald's "trilogy." This trilogy he describes Judaism as a "group evolutionary strategy" to enhance the ability of Jews to out-compete non-Jews for resources. He argues that Judaism fosters in Jews a series of marked genetic traits, including above-average verbal intelligence and a strong tendency toward collectivist behavior. MacDonald also notes a negative shift in tone from the first book to the third, and attributes it to having learned more, read more, and "changed greatly" in that time. Macdonald's trilogy has been described as significant for "its potential to forge a standardized anti-Semitic critique in the far right."A People that Shall Dwell Alone 19941994 in literatureThe year 1994 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Kevin J. Anderson - Champions of the Force, Dark Apprentice and Jedi Search*Reed Arvin - The Wind in the Wheat*Greg Bear - Songs of Earth and Power...
MacDonald describes JudaismJudaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
as having (or constituting) a "group evolutionary strategy" aimed to limit exogamy
Exogamy
Exogamy is a social arrangement where marriage is allowed only outside of a social group. The social groups define the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. In social studies, exogamy is viewed as a combination of two related aspects:...
, enforce cultural segregation, promote in-group charity and economic cooperation, and regulate in-group marriage and births to achieve high levels of intelligence, resource acquisition ability, parenting care, and group allegiance. He examines evidence from Jewish history, culture, and genetics in support of his thesis, arguing that Judaism is based on a strong and possibly genetically based predisposition to ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with...
characteristic of Middle Eastern cultures generally but exacerbated as a result of selective effects resulting from Jewish cultural practices. He analyses the use of the complex and extensive Jewish scriptures and the high prestige of Rabbinic learning as eugenic
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
mechanisms for promoting Jewish verbal intelligence and dexterity.
Separation and Its Discontents 19981998 in literatureThe year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....
Building on his work in A People that Shall Dwell Alone, MacDonald examines antisemitism as a test case for an evolutionary analysis of ethnic conflict in general, applying social identity theory to three critical periods of institutionalized antisemitism: the Roman Empire in the fourth century; the Iberian inquisitions from the fourteenth century; and German Nazism in the period 1933-45. He argues that antisemitism can be analysed as a consequence of resource competition between groups in which each group is rationally pursuing its own interests, rather than as a manifestation of irrational malice by non-Jewish out-groups, and concludes that Jews, particularly strongly identified Jews, will be relatively prone to self-deception by ignoring or rationalizing negative information about themselves and their in-group. Finally, he discusses whether Judaism has ceased to be an evolutionary strategy because of the current levels of intermarriage among some groups of diaspora Jews, arguing that it has not ceased to be so and that it continues to flourish.The Culture of Critique 19981998 in literatureThe year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....
MacDonald examines Boasian anthropology, political radicalismPolitical radicalism
The term political radicalism denotes political principles focused on altering social structures through revolutionary means and changing value systems in fundamental ways...
, psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
, the Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
, and The New York Intellectuals
The New York Intellectuals
The New York Intellectuals were a group of Jewish American writers and literary critics based in New York City in the mid-20th century. They advocated left-wing politics but were also firmly anti-Stalinist...
, arguing that Jews dominated these intellectual movements and that a strong sense of Jewish identity was characteristic of the great majority of the individuals in these movements.
He argues that these individuals were pursuing an ethnic agenda in establishing and participating in them, yet he stresses that the Jewish community does not constitute a unified movement and that only a small and elite minority of that community participated in these movements.
Nevertheless, he alleges Jewish efforts to shape United States immigration policy in opposition to the interests of the peoples of non-Jewish European descent, particularly the peoples of Northern and Western Europe. He concludes the book by claiming that intellectual movements he examines are movements that are either Jewish by nature or Jewish-controlled, and that these movements are associated with the deaths of millions of people: "In the 20th century many millions of people have been killed in the attempt to establish Marxist societies based on the ideal of complete economic and social leveling, and many more millions of people have been killed as a result of the failure of Jewish assimilation into European societies ... the result has been a widening gulf between the cultural successes of Jews and Gentiles and a disaster for society as a whole."
Describing the evolution of his thinking over the course of his writing the trilogy, MacDonald says in his preface to the paperback edition of The Culture of Critique:
- I think there is a noticeable shift in my tone from the first book to the third simply because (I'd like to think) I knew a lot more and had read a lot more. People often say after reading the first book that they think I really admire Jews, but they are unlikely to say that about the last two and especially about CofC. That is because by the time I wrote CofC I had changed greatly from the person who wrote the first book.
Understanding Jewish Influence 20042004 in literatureThe year 2004 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation....
With introduction by the late Samuel T. Francis, Understanding Jewish Influence outlines what MacDonald claims are the "background traits" of Jewish influence. MacDonald describes these roots as consisting of:- Hyper-ethnocentrismEthnocentrismEthnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with...
- High verbal intelligenceVerbal intelligenceVERBAL INTELLIGENCEDefinitionVerbal Intelligence is the ability to "juggle" with the alphabet of letters: to combine them into words and sentences...
and consequent wealthWealthWealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem... - Psychological intensity
- Social and political aggression
He goes on to relate this influence to current events concerning Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, neoconservatism
Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism in the United States is a branch of American conservatism. Since 2001, neoconservatism has been associated with democracy promotion, that is with assisting movements for democracy, in some cases by economic sanctions or military action....
, immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
, and Middle Eastern warfare waged by Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
powers.
Criticism
Slate magazine carried an article by Judith ShulevitzJudith Shulevitz
Judith Shulevitz is an American journalist, editor and culture critic. She graduated from Yale College in 1986.From 1991 to 1994, Shulevitz was the co-editor of Lingua Franca with Margaret Talbot...
, then Art and Entertainment editor of the Culturebox, entitled "Evolutionary Psychology's Anti-Semite," which was followed up by several letters continuing the discussion, and an extended rebuttal by MacDonald. According to Shulevitz, MacDonald's arguments are prescriptive: "Toward the end of the third book, MacDonald lays out his solution for restoring what he calls 'parity' between the Jews and other ethnic groups: systematic discrimination against Jews in college admission and employment and heavy taxation of Jews 'to counter the Jewish advantage in the possession of wealth'". MacDonald replied that in the actual passage from The Culture of Critique quoted by Shulevitz, he was speaking hypothetically of the consequences of competition between ethnic groups of differing abilities.
Mark Potok
Mark Potok
Mark Potok is a spokesman and director of publications and information for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, a nonprofit organization that arose from the anti-segregation movement to counter extremism and hate crimes....
of the Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
, an institute that monitors neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, has said of MacDonald that "he put the anti-Semitism under the guise of scholarly work... Kevin MacDonald’s work is nothing but gussied-up anti-Semitism. At base it says that Jews are out to get us through their agenda ... His work is bandied about by just about every neo-Nazi group in America."
The Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
has included MacDonald in its list of American extremists, Extremism in America, and written a report on MacDonald's views and ties. According to the ADL, MacDonald's views on Jews mimic those of anti-Semites from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Academic criticism
Academic Jaff Schatz has accused MacDonald of misrepresenting and misusing his work. David Lieberman, a Holocaust researcher at Brandeis UniversityBrandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
, has published a paper alleging that MacDonald has distorted evidence and chosen evidence selectively for rhetorical purposes.
John Tooby
John Tooby
John Tooby is an American anthropologist, who, together with psychologist wife Leda Cosmides, helped pioneer the field of evolutionary psychology....
, past president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society
Human Behavior and Evolution Society
The Human Behavior and Evolution Society, or HBES, is an interdisciplinary, international society of researchers, primarily from the social and biological sciences, who use modern evolutionary theory to help to discover human nature - including evolved emotional, cognitive and sexual adaptations...
and a professor of anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
at the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
, insists that MacDonald is not an evolutionary psychologist, and that he advocates models incorporating "group-selection theory", a generally discredited view of natural selection.
In a letter to Slate Magazine, Harvard University psychology professor Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Steven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...
maintained that he has not read MacDonald's books because his theses were unable to pass the threshold of attention-worthiness:
MacDonald's ideas, as presented in summaries that would serve as a basis for further examination, do not pass that threshold, for many reasons:
1. By stating that Jews promulgate scientific hypotheses because they are Jewish, he is engaging in ad hominemAd hominemAn ad hominem , short for argumentum ad hominem, is an attempt to negate the truth of a claim by pointing out a negative characteristic or belief of the person supporting it...
argumentation that is outside the bounds of normal scientific discourse and an obvious waste of time to engage. MacDonald has already announced that I will reject his ideas because I am Jewish, so what's the point of replying to them?
2. MacDonald's main axioms - group selection of behavioral adaptations, and behaviorally relevant genetic cohesiveness of ethnic groups -- are opposed by powerful bodies of data and theory, which Tooby, Cosmides, and many other evolutionary psychologists have written about in detail. Of course any assumption can be questioned, but there are no signs that MacDonald has taken on the burden of proof of showing that the majority view is wrong.
3. MacDonald's various theses, even if worthy of scientifically debate individually, collectively add up to a consistently invidious portrayal of Jews, couched in value-laden, disparaging language. It is impossible to avoid the impression that this is not an ordinary scientific hypothesis.
4. The argument, as presented in the summaries, fail two basic tests of scientific credibility: a control group (in this case, other minority ethnic groups), and a comparison with alternative hypotheses (such as Thomas SowellThomas SowellThomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective...
's convincing analysis of "middlemen minorities" such as the Jews, presented in his magisterial study of migration, race, conquest, and culture).
Reviewing MacDonald's A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy in The Jewish Quarterly Review, Sander Gilman, professor of the Liberal Arts and Medicine at the University of Illinois in Chicago describes MacDonalds arguments about a Jewish group evolutionary strategy as "bizarre". According to Gilman, "MacDonald recasts all of the hoary old myths about Jewish psychological difference and its presumed link to Jewish superior intelligence in contemporary sociobiological garb". Gilman also charges that "MacDonald manipulates his sources rather shamelessly", including Gilman’s own work. Gilman concludes that MacDonald's book "is the most recent chapter in the continued myth-building concerning Jewish superior intelligence and achievement. It is, like the numerous earlier works, of interest in how positive images turn into the means by which Jewish difference is stressed and Jewish acculturation is shown to be pathological".
Reviewing Macdonald’s A People That Shall Dwell Alone in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Eugen Schoenfeld, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Georgia State University, noted that "the book is controversial, not only because of its theoretical approach, but also, and perhaps primarily, because of sloppy scholarship". Schoenfeld writes that Macdonald "selects historical incidents that can be used to support his thesis and conveniently omits others that challenge his thesis." Schoenfeld points to what he sees as Macdonald"s "unfamiliarity with both the sociological frame
of reference and historical knowledge", and as an example, notes that Macdonald's comparison of Jewish collectivism during the biblical period with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English individualism "indicates a total ignorance of the impact of industrialization on Western societies".
Reviewing Macdonald’s Separation and Its Discontents in the American Jewish Society Review in 2000, Zev Garber, Professor of Jewish Studies at Los Angeles Valley College, writes that MacDonald works from the assumption that the dual Torah is the blueprint of the eventual Jewish dominion over the world and that he sees contemporary anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and attacks against Israel as "provoked by Jews themselves. In this scenario, Jews imagine themselves as innocent victims of hatred and violence". Garber concludes that Macdonald's "rambling who-is-who-isn't roundup of Jews responsible for the 'Jewish Problem' borders on the irrational and is conducive to misrepresentation".
John Tooby
John Tooby
John Tooby is an American anthropologist, who, together with psychologist wife Leda Cosmides, helped pioneer the field of evolutionary psychology....
, the founder of MacDonald's field (evolutionary psychology), criticized MacDonald in an article for Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
in 2000. He wrote, "MacDonald's ideas — not just on Jews — violate fundamental principles of the field."
MacDonald has replied to Tooby, Pinker, Schatz, and Lieberman on his website. In May, 2006, MacDonald responded in FrontPage Magazine to charges of anti-Semitism made by FrontPage Magazine editor Jacob Laksin.
Dan Kriegman, founder of the Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England produced a 50-page analysis criticizing MacDonald's work as "pseudo-scientific theorizing." He wrote that MacDonald "believes his own nonsense." Kriegman remarked in an email, "MacDonald is not the first person to avoid the narcissistic injury of having his ideas rejected by concluding that there was a conspiracy against him rather than becoming aware of the substandard nature [as evidenced in his trilogy] of his thinking."
A History Professor at MacDonald's university, Don Schwarz called MacDonald's claims about Jewish history
Jewish history
Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their religion and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Since Jewish history is over 4000 years long and includes hundreds of different populations, any treatment can only be provided in broad strokes...
"unsupportable." Philosophy Professor Warren Weinstein said that MacDonald's work was not science at all, but "something else, masquerading as science." "It is in the great tradition of Nazi and Stalinist science which clearly and scientifically proved that their respective insanities were objectively true and defensible," he added.
Academic Jaff Schatz has accused MacDonald of misrepresenting and misusing his work.
John Hartung, the associate editor of the Journal of Neurosurgical Anesthesiology and an associate professor of anesthesiology at the State University of New York said that MacDonald's The Culture of Critique was "quite disturbing, seriously misinformed about evolutionary genetics, and suffering from a huge blind spot about the nature of Christianity."
In a review in the journal Shofar, reviewer Jefferson A. Singer wrote that he considered the book to be " written out of a deep and destructive hatred for Jews," and questioned the editorial policy of the books' publisher, Praeger, in "bringing a book of such dubious scientific merit to a larger audience and in giving it an air of legitimacy it does not deserve."
Rebuttal
MacDonald states on his website that he has been the target of a campaign by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and others to smear his reputation. MacDonald also has taken exception to the generally negative characterization of himself and his ideas on both Wikipedia entries of his name.John Tooby
John Tooby
John Tooby is an American anthropologist, who, together with psychologist wife Leda Cosmides, helped pioneer the field of evolutionary psychology....
said 'the fact that MacDonald disagrees with evolutionary psychology's claims and principles does not necessarily make him wrong. It just makes him not an evolutionary psychologist.
Steve Sailer
Steven Ernest Sailer is an American journalist and movie critic for The American Conservative, a blogger, a VDARE.com columnist, and a former correspondent for UPI. He writes about race relations, gender issues, politics, immigration, IQ, genetics, movies, and sports.-Personal life:Sailer grew up...
, a generally conservative writer whose work often focuses on race, stated, "it looks like Tooby has rendered Evolutionary Psychology's claim to be a legitimate branch of science kaput. Tooby appears to believe that it is his personal intellectual property. If so, he should not have given it the generic scientific name "evolutionary psychology", but instead should have given it a personal or ideologically-descriptive name like "Toobyism" or "Politically Correct Darwinism."
In his review of The Culture of Critique in the Human Ethology Bulletin, Frank Salter
Frank Salter
Frank Kemp Salter is an Australian academic and researcher at the former Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology, Andechs, Germany, best known for his writings on ethnicity and ethnic interests....
of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology
Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology
The former Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology was located in Seewiesen, Bavaria, Germany. It was one of 80 institutes in the Max Planck Society ....
comments on Tooby and Pinker as follows:
On a personal note, it is overdue that John Tooby and Steven Pinker applied their professional skills seriously to critique MacDonald's work in the appropriate scientific forums. This now seems obligatory as a matter of professional duty given the severity of their attack on a colleague who has refrained from ad hominems throughout this sorry event. Still, it is now too late to reverse the harm done to both MacDonald's and probably HBES's reputation by what can only be judged reckless, unscholarly, and plain uncivil slurs. For these they should apologize....
External links
- "The Marx of the anti-Semites" – critical review by John DerbyshireJohn DerbyshireJohn Derbyshire is a British-American writer. His columns in National Review and cover a broad range of political-cultural topics, including immigration, China, history, mathematics, and race. Derbyshire's 1996 novel, Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream, was a New York Times "Notable Book of the...
in The American ConservativeThe American ConservativeThe American Conservative is a monthly U.S. opinion magazine published by Ron Unz. Its first editor was Scott McConnell, his successors being Kara Hopkins and the present incumbent, Daniel McCarthy....
. - "The Conservatism of Fools" – MacDonald's reply to Derbyshire's review
- John Derbyshire's comments on responses to his review
- "Jews Will Be Jews: A Scientific Racialism for the 21st Century" – critical review by David Isadore Lieberman.