“When the first punch is thrown in the opening chapter, you know you’re in for a wild ride. In The Lost Boys, academic sleuth Gina Perry investigates the back story of a real-life Lord of the Flies study of human behavior at a summer camp. The fascinating journey—which takes us through the history of psychology, Turkey, and even American summer camps—reads more like a detective novel than a psychological history book.”
—Susannah Cahalan, author of the New York Times bestseller Brain on Fire
“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
“[F]ascinating and not a little chilling.”
—Esquire
“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
“A cleareyed assessment of a significant chapter in the history of psychology and social science.”
—Kirkus
"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
“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 study.”
—The Guardian
