The mismeasure of man

S J Gould

W. W. Norton & Company, 1996 - Psychology - 444 pages

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 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."

What people are saying

Review: The Mismeasure of Man

User Review  - Eddy Allen - Goodreads

The definitive refutation to the argument of The Bell Curve. 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 ...

Review: The Mismeasure of Man

User Review  - Yasiru - Goodreads

I read from this book (though I readily admit I haven't read the whole thing) during my introductory psychology course at university because the lecturer pointed it out as an example of good science ...

Contents

• Acknowledgments: 15
• Reasons history and revision of The Mismeasure of Man: 36
• Introduction: 51
• monogenism: 71
• PaulBroca and the Heyday: 105
• Paul Broca and his school: 114
• Postscript: 140
• criminal anthropology: 151
• Epilogue: 173
• An American: 176
• H H Goddard and the menace of the feebleminded: 188
• Terman and the mass marketing of innate IQ: 204
• IQ comes: 222
• Factor Analysis: 264
• Charles Spearman and general intelligence: 286
• Cyril Burt and the hereditarian synthesis: 303
• A Positive Conclusion 557: 351
• Epilogue: 365
• Ghosts of Bell Curves past: 379
• Three Centuries Perspectives on Race: 391
• Racial geometry: 401
• The moral state of Tahitiand of Darwin: 413
• Bibliography: 425
• Index: 433

About the author

Born in New York City in 1941, Stephen Jay Gould received his B.A. from Antioch College in New York in 1963. He received a Ph.D. in paleontology from Columbia University in 1967 and has been a professor at Harvard University since then. He is also curator of invertebrate paleontology at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. His research has been mainly in the evolution and speciation of land snails. Gould is a leading proponent of the theory of punctuated equilibrium. This theory holds that few evolutionary changes occur among organisms over long periods of time, and then a brief period of rapid changes occurs before another long, stable period of equilibrium sets in. An outspoken advocate of the scientific outlook, Gould has been a vigorous defender of evolution against its creation-science opponents in popular magazines focusing on science. He writes a column for Natural History and has produced a remarkable series of books that display the excitement of science for the layperson.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The mismeasure of man
• Author: S J Gould
• Edition: 2, illustrated, revised
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996
• ISBN: 0393314251, 9780393314250
• Length: 444 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / Assessment, Testing & Measurement; Social Science / Sociology / General