I wrote a review for Nicholas Wade's A Troublesome Inheritance that compared the two, and explains a lot of the merit of Murray's book.
I'll add that I did not like Part I of Murray's Human Diversity much at all (I found it tedious and boring, although I didn't have a problem with its core messages).
In this review, I've been talking about Parts II, III, and IV. When considered as their own book, Parts II, III, and IV are well worth 5 stars, so I gave them 5 stars since you might like Part I, or else you can easily skip it.
I have to recommend that you read Parts II and III of Charles Murray's Human Diversity before reading Nicholas Wade's A Troublesome Inheritance (if you read Murray's Human Diversity and want more, reading Wade's book after is fine).
Here are some reasons why Murray's books is better:
1. Murray's book was published in 2020, Wade's in 2014. If you're unfamiliar with the modern study of human genetics, you might not realize that we are currently in a period of incredibly rapid progress. Those 6 years make an enormous difference.
2. Wade's book is far more speculative. Wade says himself right at the start of his book that the second half, chapters 6-10 out of 10 total are not based on scientific evidence but instead speculation. Speculation can be interesting, but it doesn't improve your understanding of the world the way that you're probably wanting out of a book like this. (I know I wanted to read about the science that the mainstream narrative obscures, and understand true facts about the world better)
In contrast to Wade's speculation, Murray's book is laser focused on the facts. Wade book has 12 pages of citations and notes, Murray's book has 118 - almost 10x as much. And believe me, it comes through in the texts. Even the chapters where Wade wants to describe science to you, the citations are here and there but a lot of it is Wade explaining a concept or helping you understand a researcher's point. Whereas, Murray's writing is often like this: "Here's a study. Here's a study. Here's a study. Here's the median/average/range." Some readers may find Murray a little more difficult (I thought it was fine), but if that's the case I encourage you to just read difficult passages twice. It's better to have a difficult reading that you actually learn better facts from than an easier read that doesn't teach you nearly as much.
3. In contrast to Wade, Murray is far more restrained. Murray makes a point at the start of his book that he wants to avoid any areas where the scientists are in debate - his point with the book is to make very, very well-backed points that are still "forbidden" in modern discourse. All those sources help him back up his well-researched points. In a lot of disciplines, staying on what the scientific consensus was certain on could be boring, but not this area because even the agreed upon points are "forbidden" to discuss.
This matters hugely for you as a reader, because after you read Wade's book, you'll have trouble remembering whether something you read was agreed on by researchers in 2014, or whether it was something Wade himself was just speculating on. In contrast, Murray makes restrained but important claims (1 per chapter, so 6 in Parts II and III of his book). And he really helps you understand how we're quite confident their true, and the limits of what he means by that. So when you finish Murray's book, you'll probably have a much clearer understanding of certain aspects of the world than you did before reading, and you can take Murray's restrained claims into any conversation you want, because they are grounded in mountains of empirical data.
Murray does give his own thoughts, but he does so only briefly, and in a separate tiny section at the end of Parts I, II, III and the book as a whole. It is crucially helpful that he never gives his thoughts in the main core of the book itself, so this really helps you mentally separate the piles of study's w Murray's opinion (which you can also easily skip, it's only a small part of the book)
4. This point is harder to directly substantiate, but overall I think Murray just frames the issue better, in a more grounded and realistic manner, and overall will just leave you better suited for the real world after reading it. Wade's heart is in the right place, he's not hateful or anything, but he focuses a lot on past civilizations and thinks about racial connections to society and history. Historical speculation can be fun (whoa what if the Vikings had colonized Canada, or what if the Muslims controlled Spain for a different length of time), but ultimately, you want to walk away from a book like this equipped to go back into the real world. (In the few times he isn't just telling you the science directly) Murray focuses more on that sort of thing overall: How will we as a society deal with the uncomfortable facts discussed. You'll walk away from Murray's book more aware of things that actually affect your life.
Conclusion:
Ultimately, 2014 vs 2020 makes a huge difference in the rapidly developing field of human genetics. Wade leans into speculation, which while it can be fun with popcorn is not going to enrich you as a reader as well as Murray's grounded, societally controversial but scientifically agreed upon claims. Murray brings study after study, which really adds up to adding depth to your improved understanding.
No shame to Wade though. If you've already read Murray's book and are looking for something else that is maybe a bit more speculative, Wade's book might be worth checking out.
I'll add that I did not like Part I of Murray's Human Diversity much at all; in this review, I've been talking about Parts II, III, and IV.
Good luck finding your next book to read!
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