This timely book deals directly with a topic increasingly in the news and on the minds of policy makerspolitical inequality. It is no coincidence that the official theme of the 1996 meeting of the American Political Science Association is the issue of political inequality. Drawing together a number of the leading writers on the topic, White provides a full and serious examination of the biological and environmental factors that may be involved.

In looking at these factors, the book opens up new paths of exploration for political science, including the consideration of the role of the pariah variable of intelligence. A major work that researchers and policy makers of both liberal and conservative persuasion will need to confront.