A Troublesome Inheritance draws on crucial scientific breakthroughs that show evidence of recent human evolution. The most provocative claims in the book involve the genetic basis of both race and human social habits. Author Nicholas Wade argues that what we might call middle-class social traits have been slowly inculcated genetically within agrarian societies. Wade believes deeply in the equality of all people but he is determined to investigate what new genetic science shows about how race relates to human history and traits, even if it courts controversy.