Join Amazon Prime and ship Two-Day for free and Overnight for $3.99. Already a member? Sign in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
by Stephen Jay Gould
|
by Thomas S. Kuhn
|
by Stephen Jay Gould
|
The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author by Richard Dawkins |
by Jared Diamond
|
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
A rare book-at once of great importance and wonderful to read. (Saturday Review )
A rare book-at once of great importance and wonderful to read....Gould presents a fascinating historical study of scientific racism....A major addition to scientific literature. -- Saturday Review
See all Editorial Reviews
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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
A rare book-at once of great importance and wonderful to read. (Saturday Review )
A rare book-at once of great importance and wonderful to read....Gould presents a fascinating historical study of scientific racism....A major addition to scientific literature. -- Saturday Review
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
CITIZENS OF THE REPUBLIC, Socrates advised, should be educated and assigned by merit to three classes: rulers, auxiliaries, and craftsmen. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
simple structure axes, unilinear ranking, principal components orientation, tetrad difference, hereditarian interpretation, factor axes, unilinear scale, mental worth, army mental tests, hereditarian theory, racial ranking, innate stupidity, cranial index, average mental age, mental testers, parental intelligence, tail width, factor axis, army data, mental testing, first principal component, leg width, primary abilities, primary mental abilities, criminal anthropology Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cyril Burt, Crania Americana, Sir Cyril, United States, Paul Broca, World War, Arthur Jensen, Charles Spearman, New York, New Jersey, The Bell Curve, Alfred Binet, Inca Peruvians, John Stuart Mill, Louis Agassiz, Cesare Lombroso, Havelock Ellis New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
CITIZENS OF THE REPUBLIC, Socrates advised, should be educated and assigned by merit to three classes: rulers, auxiliaries, and craftsmen. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
simple structure axes, unilinear ranking, principal components orientation, tetrad difference, hereditarian interpretation, factor axes, unilinear scale, mental worth, army mental tests, hereditarian theory, racial ranking, innate stupidity, cranial index, average mental age, mental testers, parental intelligence, tail width, factor axis, army data, mental testing, first principal component, leg width, primary abilities, primary mental abilities, criminal anthropology Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cyril Burt, Crania Americana, Sir Cyril, United States, Paul Broca, World War, Arthur Jensen, Charles Spearman, New York, New Jersey, The Bell Curve, Alfred Binet, Inca Peruvians, John Stuart Mill, Louis Agassiz, Cesare Lombroso, Havelock Ellis New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 30
books:
See all 30 books this book cites
100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- Voyage of the Beagle (National Geographic Adventure Classics) by Charles Darwin on 6 pages
- The Descent of Man (Great Minds Series) by Charles Darwin on 4 pages
- The Descent of Man (Penguin Classics) by Charles Darwin on 4 pages
- Criminal Man by Cesare Lobroso on page 154, page 156, and page 163
- The Man With the Hoe And Other Poems by Edwin Markham on page 198, and page 199
See all 30 books this book cites
- The Limitations of Scientific Truth: Why Science Can't Answer Life's Ultimate Questions by Nigel Brush on page 117, page 262, and Back Matter
- When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson on page 28, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Social Science in Question: Towards a Postdisciplinary Framework (Published in association with The Open University) by Dr Mark J Smith on page 90, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution by Francis Fukuyama on page 26, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Race, Place, and Medicine: The Idea of the Tropics in Nineteenth-Century Brazil by Julyan Peard in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
See all 100 books citing this book
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
 |
89% buy the item featured on this page: The Mismeasure of Man $12.21 |
 |
4% buy Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (A Free Press Paperbacks Book) $12.24 |
 |
3% buy Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History $10.85 |
 |
2% buy Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin $10.85 |
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search
No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Customer Discussions
Beta (What's this?)
New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.
|
This product's forum
(0 discussions)
Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Active discussions in related forums
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Information from the Amapedia Community
Beta (What's this?)Be the first person to add an article about this item at Amapedia.com.
› See featured Amapedia.com articles
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > Testing & Measurement
- Books > Literature & Fiction
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Literature
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Biology & Life Sciences
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Social Sciences > Psychology
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Social Sciences > Sociology
- Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy
- Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology
- Books > Science > Biological Sciences
Cook with the Best Ingredients |
Best Books of 2008 |
Equip Yourself |
Paint with Flying Colors |
|||||||
|
Your Recent History
(What's this?)|
You have no recently viewed items or searches.
After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session. |
Continue shopping: Top Sellers
| ||||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
