Smedley's (anthropology and african american studies, Virginia Commonwealth U.) study of the history of race takes as a central premise that race is a sociocultural phenomenon, and one peculiar to only some cultures, rather than a biologically coherent concept. She maintains that races are real as cultural creations though, with very material consequences. She focuses on the United States, where she thinks race has seen the most thorough institutionalization outside of South Africa, and the history of the inheritance of the concept from the English. She covers race ideology in science, which she argues is where many American beliefs about race came from in the 19th and earlier 20th centuries. Much of the study is a history of science and query into the relationship between science and social thought. This fourth edition contains new material about racial slavery and the preference for Africans in America, though less in the sections on various histories. She also offers a new section on race in light of Barack Obama. Her son, Brian Smedley (health policy, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies) authors the final chapter on racial discrimination in medicine and alternatives to the racial-herditarian paradigm. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Read Less