Publisher Description
When published in 1981, The Mismeasure of Man was immediately hailed as a masterwork, the ringing answer to those who would classify people, rank them according to their supposed genetic gifts and limits.
Yet the idea of of biology as destiny dies hard, as witness the attention devoted to The Bell Curve, whose arguments are here so effectively anticipated and thoroughly undermined. In this edition, Stephen Jay Gould has written a substantial new introduction telling how and why he wrote the book and tracing the subsequent history of the controversy on innateness right through The Bell Curve. Further, he has added five essays on questions of The Bell Curve in particular and on race, racism, and biological determinism in general. These additions strengthen the book’s claim to be, as Leo J. Kamin of Princeton University has said, “a major contribution toward deflating pseudo-biological ‘explanations’ of our present social woes.”
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“This is a very challenging and rewarding book to read. Gould makes no bones about his intention to make the reader rise to the material rather than sink the material to the lowest common denominator. This is a very technical and educational refutation of The Bell Curve. This book explains the problems with standardized testing, IQ tests and even the concept of IQ. Gould has forced me to re-analyze many concepts and ideas that I felt were the bedrock of our culture. It explains the origins of IQ and the Army Alpha as well as their shortcomings. This is an important and rewarding book to read.”
—
Chris (4 out of 5 stars)
