Montagu reviews thoroughly the myths and rationalizations that cluster about the word 'race'. Reviewing data of anthropology, anatomy, physiology, genetics, and psychology, he concludes that except for very broad divisions of mankind, the idea of race is only an approximation, and in no sense combinable with valuations, such as superior and inferior, good and bad, civilizable and obligatorily primitive. Most of what is put forth about 'races' is tendentious, and a rationalization for distinctions of caste, to further the interests of a social, economic, or political group. This contention is amply buttressed by Montagu's consideration of the American negro and of the Jew.