The Mismeasure of Man (Revised and Expanded)

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W. W. Norton & Company, Jun 17, 2006 - Science - 448 pages

The definitive refutation to the argument of The Bell Curve.

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.

And yet the idea of innate limits—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 by Stephen Jay Gould. In this edition Dr. 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."

 

Contents

Acknowledgments
Reasons history and revision of The Mismeasure of Man
Introduction
monogenism and polygenism
Samuel George Mortonempiricist of polygeny
The American school and slavery
Two Case Studies on the Apishness
Epilogue
Charles Spearman and general intelligence
Cyril Burt and the hereditarian synthesis
A Positive Conclusion
Epilogue
Ghosts of Bell Curves past
Three Centuries Perspectives on Race and Racism
The moral state of Tahitiand of Darwin
Bibliography

H H Goddard and the menace of the feebleminded
Factor Analysis and

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About the author (2006)

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Geology at Harvard University. He published over twenty books, received the National Book and National Book Critics Circle Awards, and a MacArthur Fellowship.

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