“Perry writes about Sherif’s complicated past, why he was able to carry out the test, and how the boys banded against each other at the camp. But she also digs into the theory behind it, which feels spookily relevant now: the idea that we easily pick sides based on arbitrary circumstances, and that can lead to violence.”
Outside Magazine
“A cleareyed assessment of a significant chapter in the history of psychology and social science.”
Kirkus
“This is a wonderful book; I couldn’t stop reading once I started. Gina Perry is not only a thorough researcher, she’s also a great writer. A lot of psychology textbooks will have to be updated after her groundbreaking research.”
Rutger Bregman, author of Utopia for Realists
“In The Lost Boys, Gina Perry has created a meticulously-researched, skilfully crafted account of a decades-old experiment that still casts a shadow over the lives of its subjects. This is a fascinating, disturbing and utterly compelling cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific obsession.”
Michael Brooks, author of The Quantum Astrologer's Handbook
“In The Lost Boys, Gina Perry puts these extraordinary experiments under the microscope. As in her 2013 book Behind the Shock Machine, which probed psychologist Stanley Milgram’s 1960s research on obedience, she is unsatisfied with the half-truths lazily handed down in textbooks…The result is an enlightening read, and a ripping yarn.”
Nature
“A fascinating and finely written study of one of the best-known social experiments of the twentieth century. Through archive research and interviews with participants, Gina Perry uses her investigative flair to reconstruct the context, characters, and stakes of this strange piece of history.”
Darian Leader, author of What Is Madness?
“[A] fascinating study.”
The Guardian
“[F]ascinating.”
The TImes
“[A]s engrossing as a thriller.”
Irish Examiner
“Mesmerising…Perry is a deeply thoughtful and empathetic writer.”
Spectator
“[Gina Perry’s] central point never loses its shock value: “How many psychological wounds were caused in pursuit of scientific and historical understanding?””
The Mail on Sunday
“Touching and horrifying.”
Barnaby Crowcroft, Times Literary Supplement
“Enthralling.”
Australian Book Review
“An engrossing expose of the Robbers Cave experiment, a classic study in social psychology, was also a fine historical recreation.”
Gideon Haigh, ABR’s ‘Books of the Year 2018’
“In The Lost Boys, Gina Perry returns to the terrain of morally dubious and manipulative psychological experiments.”
The Saturday Age
“Fascinating…excellent.”
Weekend Australian
“[An] excellent piece of non-fiction interrogating one of the most celebrated pieces of psychological research of the mid-20th century.”
Herald Sun
“Intriguing…Written in an engaging style, it will fascinate both academics and casual readers alike.”
Canberra Weekly
“[Perry’s] analysis of Sherif’s scientific process benefits from a distance, seeing revelations that Sherif and his staff were too close to see. It was enthralling and appalling at the same time.”
Tonstant Weader
“This brilliant reexamination of a study that resonates today should interest scholars as well as undergraduate and graduate psychology students.” STARRED REVIEW
Library Journal
“In assessing the ostensible success of the experiment and the work of Sherif, who emerges as an extremely difficult man, arrogant and conceited, Perry has done prodigious research.”
Booklist
“[This] long profile of him [Sherif], and description of his experiment, will likely remain unsurpassed.”
Publishers Weekly
