The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do » (Revised and Updated)

Judith Rich Harris is also the author of No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality. A former writer of college textbooks, Harris is a recipient of the George A. Miller Award, given to the author of an outstanding article in psychology. She is an independent investigator and theoretician whose interests include evolutionary psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, and behavioral genetics.

This groundbreaking book, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times notable pick, rattled the psychological establishment when it was first published in 1998 by claiming that parents have little impact on their children's development. In this tenth anniversary edition of The Nurture Assumption, Judith Harris has updated material throughout and provided a fresh introduction. Combining insights from psychology, sociology, anthropology, primatology, and evolutionary biology, she explains how and why the tendency of children to take cues from their peers works to their evolutionary advantage. This electrifying book explodes many of our unquestioned beliefs about children and parents and gives us a radically new view of childhood.

Nation - Ann Crittenden

Buried in the fine print. . .are so many caveats that the book's thesis virtually evaporates. . . .What does affect a child's . . .development?. . . .Harris' answer: peers. . . .I can't help thinking about. . .young men brought down on the battlefield. Fallen among their comrades. . .the wounded warriors cry out not for their buddies but for their mothers.