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Where Have All the Liberals Gone?: Race, Class, and Ideals in America | 
 enlarge | Author: James R. Flynn
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
Buy New: $10.05
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 169545
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0521494311
Dewey Decimal Number: 155
EAN: 9780521494311
ASIN: 0521494311
Publication Date: September 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Ever since the publication of Race, IQ, and Jensen (1980), Professor James R. Flynn has been the most respected critic of the notion that the IQ gap between black and white Americans is genetic in origin. This new book is a must for those who want to be up to date with that debate. He also offers an alternative to the vision of American society popularized by The Bell Curve. His overriding purpose is to rearm American idealism with new ideas. Where have all the Liberals Gone? addresses all those who want "something better than a foreign policy that provokes disgust, a domestic politics with neither the vision nor the resources to promote the common good, and a foolish relativism that reduces all ideals to the lowest common denominator." Professor Flynn analyzes the black marriage market, the case for affirmative action, the folly of Iraq, and the liberal failure of will. He traces the history of American idealism from Jefferson to the followers of Leo Strauss. The book ends with a powerful defense of humane ideals and human autonomy. Social scientists, philosophers, and the general public will find this book exciting, unique and the style clear and attractive.
Book Description
James R. Flynn's latest book offers a controversial left wing discussion arguing that the gap in IQs between black and white Americans is an environmental rather than genetic factor. A must read for all those who want to keep up to date with the IQ debate.
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| Customer Reviews:
Insightful, in your Face Argument October 9, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein became infamous for suggesting that the data supports the view that the 15 point different in IQ between blacks and whites in the USA is mostly genetic, and we should stop trying to equalize economic outcomes between blacks and whites for this reason. James Flynn provided one of the most plausible counter-argumes, showing that IQ measures rise so rapidly over time that blacks of the present generation have about the same distribution of IQ scores as whites two generations ago. For this reason, we cannot rule out the possibility that IQ differences are fully determined by environmental differences between blacks and whites.
Flynn deepens this analysis in this book, and adds that while black children from middle class families in the US do worse that white children from similar environments (thus supporting the hereditary position), black children in Germany, sired by American soldiers during WWII, show no such deficit. Flynn believes that in fact American black culture values education, but does not value hard work and strict discipline, so even middle class black parents do not foster the sorts of attitudes that show up as high scores on IQ tests.
Flynn concludes that anyone who tells you he/she is certain that the black-white IQ gap is purely environmental either does not know the literature or is simply lying. He believes there is a lot of lying going on among liberals, who are too lilly-livered to confront the data.
Flynn supplies a fine analysis of the sad state of the black family in the United States. He argues that for every marriage-age black female, there are only about 0.57 marriagable black males, the remainder being in jail, dead, married to a non-black, or homeless. Because black females want to have children, they simply do so without the guarantee of marriage. Because the marriage market is so favorable to American black males, they get all the sex and love they want without being tied down.
Flynn shows that the marriage market is much better for Hispanics in the US, mainly because there is a constand flow of males from Latin America to the US, so there is effectively no male deficit.
This material is all quite excellent, and delivered with the usual Flynn insight. However, Flynn uses his pulpit to range far and wide in support of his social democratic sympathies. There is nothing new here, just a lot of intellectual history and the usual arguments against military spending, for affirmative action, and the like. I wish he had left this material out of the book, concentrating on what he does best.
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