The Mismeasure of Man | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen Jay Gould
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 2516
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 444
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 0393314251
Dewey Decimal Number: 150
EAN: 9780393314250
ASIN: 0393314251
Publication Date: June 1996
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Amazon.com
How smart are you? If that question doesn't spark a dozen more questions in your mind (like "What do you mean by 'smart,'" "How do I measure it," and "Who's asking?"), then The Mismeasure of Man, Stephen Jay Gould's masterful demolition of the IQ industry, should be required reading. Gould's brilliant, funny, engaging prose dissects the motivations behind those who would judge intelligence, and hence worth, by cranial size, convolutions, or score on extremely narrow tests. How did scientists decide that intelligence was unipolar and quantifiable, and why did the standard keep changing over time? Gould's answer is clear and simple: power maintains itself. European men of the 19th century, even before Darwin, saw themselves as the pinnacle of creation and sought to prove this assertion through hard measurement. When one measure was found to place members of some "inferior" group such as women or Southeast Asians over the supposedly rightful champions, it would be discarded and replaced with a new, more comfortable measure. The 20th-century obsession with numbers led to the institutionalization of IQ testing and subsequent assignment to work (and rewards) commensurate with the score, shown by Gould to be not simply misguided--for surely intelligence is multifactorial--but also regressive, creating a feedback loop rewarding the rich and powerful. The revised edition includes a scathing critique of Herrnstein and Murray's The Bell Curve, taking them to task for rehashing old arguments to exploit a new political wave of uncaring and belt tightening. It might not make you any smarter, but The Mismeasure of Man will certainly make you think. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
In the current heated discussions of hereditary vs. environmental impacts on IQ, Gould's National Book Critics' Circle Award-winning book deserves a hearing.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 84 more reviews...
 Cogent Analysis on the Misuses of Intelligence Testing January 23, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Regarding Stephen Jay Gould's book "The Mismeasure of Man," it seems to me that a recurring theme can be found in many of the negative reviews. The theme is a variation of the claim: "Gould allows his ideology to get in the way of his analysis." Putting aside, for the moment, the question of whether or not that particular criticism has any basis in fact, I find it remarkable that the progenitors of such a claim do not (will not?) consider the possibility that the scientists, scholars and social scientists who hold views antithetical to those of Gould's--e.g. intelligence is largely genetic and heritable; the gap in I.Q. test scores between whites and blacks is due to innate genetic differences--may be guilty of committing the same malfeasance for which Gould is being accused.
Moreover, one has to wonder if the prime reason for all the strong negative criticism is not necessarily a general disagreement with the printed facts, but rather a personal, visceral rejection of the perceived incompatibility between the conclusions Gould recovers, on the one hand, and the chosen ideology of the critical reviewers themselves, on the other.
Given the plausibility of such a scenario, I believe a healthy dose of introspection and sincerity is in order, lest one proceeds to "cast the first stone."
The Mismeasure of Man January 5, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is supposed to be an accurate refutation of "the Bell Curve", but there is truth to the arguments in both books. The only question is to what degree do nurture and nature effect human intelligence?
One of the most important books I own January 1, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Are there entire populations of people who are born with an innate, quantifiable intelligence greater than others? Can intelligence even be quantified? According to Gould, science has not yet arrived at a meaningful and scientifically legitimate understanding of this concept of intelligence, nor a way to measure it, nor any proof that certain races are naturally smarter than others.
I would expect an eminent evolutionist to spend his time making a case for how biological diversity lends itself to multiple levels of mental ability through natural selection. But instead Gould puts on a turtleneck and tweed and plays historian--quite well, too! His scientific background gives him the credibility to explore this topic like no historian could.
Gould walks through the history of science's attempt to quantify human intelligence and demonstrates how and why each method eventually failed. But of course this type of science exists today in various types of IQ tests, bell curves, all of which are used to not only measure this thing we call intelligence, but also by some to argue that some groups are naturally superior to others. Gould analyzes the history, methods and underlying theories behind these contemporary incarnations.
The book is readable, well illustrated, well documented, and has a lot of solid historical analysis.
Necessary Book During the Current Testing and Accountability Crisis December 29, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a necessary book during the current climate of high-stakes testing as mandated by No Child Left Behind. No Child Left Behind stipulates that test results should be publicly reported for each subgroup (i.e., African American, Hispanic, White, etc). What is not being discussed though is how the current test results might be influenced by the culturally and linguistically biased nature of the tests. Gould's books serves as a reminder of the historical misuse of culturally and linguistically biased tests, and how the tests have historically been used to "prove" the inferiority of African Americans, immigrants, etc. The current mandate that "subgroup" test results are to be publicly reported reeks of the era of using the measurement of skulls as "proof" of African American intellectual inferiority (as delineated in Gould's book).
What can I say, it is SJG! July 21, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
It is rare that you find a book that makes you feel smarter and inherently worthwhile as a person just because you read it: this is one of those books. A great behind-the-scenes read of some of the history of statistics, IQ, and the advancement of science. Well worth it!
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