Books by Constance Hilliard

Straightening the Bell Curve offers a new way of looking at the distressingly persistent subject of intelligence research as it relates to race and gender. Constance Hilliard’s premise—that researchers preoccupied with proving racial hierarchies often sacrifice scientific truth to masculine insecurities—rests on her examination of works of historical and contemporary figures in the field of racial research. Based on this thesis, Straightening the Bell Curve explores the emotional fixations concealed behind the presumably rational ones that propel otherwise clearheaded researchers to ignore elemental flaws in their conceptions as they set out to prove the cognitive inferiority of African Americans. The tendency to justify racial and cultural stereotypes on the grounds that they reflect underlying biological differences has a long and controversial history in America. As far back as the eighteenth century, new areas of scientific research employed craniology and craniometry in an attempt to “document” black inferiority. This scholarly preoccupation with measuring skull sizes emerged concomitant with two important developments: the solidifying of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the deep-seated fear among Europeans that Africans possessed larger sexual organs than they. Thus, craniologists came to the rescue of their anxious male patrons, insisting that the price Africa’s “oversexed savages” paid for being well endowed was cognitive underdevelopment, confirmed through bogus skull measurement experiments. Constance Hilliard’s compelling argument aims to change forever the way American society sees research purporting to identify racial differences in cognition and will alter irrevocably the way we view individuals who insist on believing such pseudo-scientific conclusions. This book detonates a debate that will weaken the last barriers standing between America’s fractured racial past and its future promise.

The Jewish people are in greater danger than ever before. Given the debacle in Iraq, many Americans who had not taken a serious interest in the Middle East have begun asking themselves, What are we doing wrong? Why do we keep misreading the signals coming from that part of the world? More fundamentally, where will Israel be in two, five, ten years from now? Should Zionism be replaced by a post-Zionist state that welcomes all people, rather than one that privileges only the Jews? Will there even be a Jewish state? These are the questions Constance Hilliard addresses in Does Israel Have a Future?, forgoing polemics and wishful thinking for straight talk and painful truths. In this thoroughly researched book, Hilliard presents an honest assessment of the Jewish state’s chances for survival given the forces ranged against it. The discussions about the future of the Jewish state analyzed in this book are some of the most significant to engage Israelis since 1948, dominating the airwaves, newspapers, and café conversations. Distilling these disparate views into a simple, straightforward exploration of one of the most explosive issues of our time—one into which few people outside Israel have delved as deeply as Hilliard has—the author presents a provocative argument that will appeal to scholars and students of international affairs, political science, and the Middle East, as well as general readers concerned about Israel’s future.