“We have needed a reassessment and intelligent book on how racial categorizing grows within twentieth and twenty-first century science without using the simple labels of “racism” or “racist.” Race Unmasked is a terrific guide to the often invisible intertwined terrain of science and politics around race. Re-reading the past with an eye to nuance and clarity, Yudell understands how “race” comes to be unintentionally hidden, and yet still can be uncovered and critiqued. This book should find its way to classrooms across the curriculum.”

—Susan M. Reverby, Wellesley College and author of Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and its Legacy

“Race matters. All over the world we sort each other into groups by skin color, hair texture, and other physical characteristics, but as Michael Yudell reminds us in this masterful, engaging, and important book, we barely have a clue about the biological basis for what we are doing. Race Unmasked is just the right remedy for those seeking to better understand the horrors and wrongs of racism.”

—Arthur L. Caplan, NYU Langone Medical Center

“Michael Yudell has given us a fascinating and perceptive study of “man's most dangerous myth.” This insightful book on race should be read widely by anyone concerned with the multiple uses, misuses, tangled history, and persistent confusions over this vexed and potent concept.”

—Keith Wailoo, Princeton University

“How can a concept that has been so debunked as a biological reality keep rising from the dead? Race Unmasked helps answer this by illustrating the troubling story of the sustained, strained, and stained history of the concept of race in scientific thought and practice.”

—David Rosner, Columbia University