Richard Lynn became famous for his Global IQ books. He simply examined all the many IQ studies and wrote that there was a strong correlation between a nation's IQ and a nation's wealth. Once that has been pointed out it is an impossible idea to forget. This book is much the same. He cites studies of Jewish achievement written over centuries and points out that all of these can be explained by the simple observation that Jews are more intelligent than Gentiles. Previous authors noted Jewish achievements but usually failed to connect them to greater Jewish intelligence.
Like the "Wealth of Nations" I expect that he will be criticised for factual errors. But it won't matter much. There are almost certainly going to be factual errors in such a data rich book. In "Wealth of Nations" Lynn estimated sub-Saharan black IQs at about 60. That was a controversial estimate. Others rose to challenge him. They claimed that black African IQs were really about 70. But for the lay reader - who cares? The public has been taught that all the races are equal. To learn that Africans have such low IQs is shocking. As to just how low, isn't really very important. If there was any evidence that blacks in Africa had the same average IQs as the Japanese, that would be a devastating rebuttal to Lynn's main thesis. But if Africans have IQs in the seventies rather than the sixties doesn't much effect the thrust of his argument.
Similarly someone will undoubtedly discover that some person he identified as a Jew was actually not a Jew. But the evidence that Lynn piles up is just too overwhelming for it too matter. In general Lynn doesn't speculate much. Mostly he just states the evidence. And the evidence is that Jews are smarter than Gentiles because of genetics - not family culture of any other environmental cause.
In the penultimate chapter he relates some of the theories as too why Jews are smarter. He seems to prefer the ideas of Cochran and Hardening. I had hoped for some new theory since I read their book two years ago, but no. Lynn doesn't see his role as being a theorist. He is a compiler of evidence and a very good one at that. He cites Charles Murray often also.
I had had my own theory of Jewish exceptionalism. I thought that the Ashkenazi went through an evolutionary bottleneck in the fourteenth century. I have long prefer this explanation to any that only invoked simple selection. But I'll have to abandon that idea. Lynn simply cites too many cases of high Jewish performance well before the fourteenth century.
So I was wrong. You can't ask more of a non-fiction book than to prove to you that you were mistaken.
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The Chosen People: A Study of Jewish Intelligence and Achievement Paperback – September 5, 2011
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Richard Lynn
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Richard Lynn
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Print length408 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherWashington Summit Publishers
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Publication dateSeptember 5, 2011
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ISBN-101593680368
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ISBN-13978-1593680367
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Even as we attain greater and greater insights into the tangled web of nature and nurture, society stubbornly refuses to concede humankind s conformity as an animal species to the ongoing process of evolution. It instead imposes a mythological worldview almost entirely divorced from science: indeed, we see no contradiction in celebrating cultural diversity while simultaneously suppressing even a mention of genetic variance. Undaunted, Richard Lynn has with The Chosen People accomplished a yeoman s task in summing up work done thus far on Jewish intelligence. Given the disparate nature of the many studies that he cites, the relationship of intelligence to IQ is often problematic, and intelligence itself is but one piece in a complex mosaic, but this courageous and dispassionate book provides a platform for the study of a topic that is of considerable importance on the scientific plane, and for the sophisticated reader of even greater importance in the world of politics. --John Glad, author of Jewish Eugenics
In The Chosen People, Professor Lynn has shown once again his talent for combining exhaustive research with daring scholarship. He is also an engaging writer, which is a quality in short supply among those who do detailed statistical work. Like his earlier books, this monograph should be read by anyone who is interested in the relation between innate intelligence and professional and social achievements. We ignore this historically significant subject at our peril and at the cost of future generations. --Paul E. Gottfried, Elizabethtown College
Professor Richard Lynn s work addresses dispassionately and objectively the question of why Jews have been so remarkably successful as intellectuals and in professional and managerial life. Using a wealth of statistics and commentary from many different countries and societies, he demonstrates their success over and over again. Because of the odious uses to which the Nazis and their ilk put eugenically-based arguments, Jews and others have often been reluctant to engage in debating this question. Professor Lynn shows that this question ought to be addressed, and that it can be addressed objectively by philo-semites favourable to the Jews as well as by anti-Semites who are hostile to them. --William D. Rubinstein, University of Aberystwyth
In The Chosen People, Professor Lynn has shown once again his talent for combining exhaustive research with daring scholarship. He is also an engaging writer, which is a quality in short supply among those who do detailed statistical work. Like his earlier books, this monograph should be read by anyone who is interested in the relation between innate intelligence and professional and social achievements. We ignore this historically significant subject at our peril and at the cost of future generations. --Paul E. Gottfried, Elizabethtown College
Professor Richard Lynn s work addresses dispassionately and objectively the question of why Jews have been so remarkably successful as intellectuals and in professional and managerial life. Using a wealth of statistics and commentary from many different countries and societies, he demonstrates their success over and over again. Because of the odious uses to which the Nazis and their ilk put eugenically-based arguments, Jews and others have often been reluctant to engage in debating this question. Professor Lynn shows that this question ought to be addressed, and that it can be addressed objectively by philo-semites favourable to the Jews as well as by anti-Semites who are hostile to them. --William D. Rubinstein, University of Aberystwyth
About the Author
Richard Lynn is Emeritus Professor of Psychology of the University of Ulster. He holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Cambridge and has authored over 200 scholarly articles. His books include Dysgenics,Eugenics, Race Differences in Intelligence, and with Tatu Vanhanen, IQ and the Wealth of Nations and IQ and Global Inequality.
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Product details
- Publisher : Washington Summit Publishers; 1st edition (September 5, 2011)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 408 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1593680368
- ISBN-13 : 978-1593680367
- Item Weight : 1 pounds
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Best Sellers Rank:
#2,516,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
3.7 out of 5 stars
3.7 out of 5
12 global ratings
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Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2013
Verified Purchase
29 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2019
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The book conclusion is very interesting
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2014
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IF YOU HAVE AN INTEREST IN IQ AND INHERITANCE THIS IS A GOOD BOOK.
3 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2015
The formula of the book is this:
There are some number of Gentiles and some number of Jews. Within the Gentile population, there is X% of people that does this job/ has this metric. There is Y% of Jews that does the same job. The over/ under representation is expressed as Q= Y/X. If Q>1, then Jews are over-represented by some multiple (say as physicians or chess grand masters or upper income) and if Q<1 then they are underrepresented in that field (let's say as prisoners or in infant mortality rates). If Q=1 (in which case this book would not need to be written), then they are the same as everyone else.
The book covers (ad nauseum) several points in time/ space (France, Britain, United States, South Africa), but the it's the same story in a different place.
Thoughts:
1. I don't think that this book is something that you want to read from cover to cover because it's just a repetition of facts. It's not like there is any narrative/ story arc that explains how these things came to be. For that, you have to pick up other books. ( Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People and The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution come to mind as excellent choices.)
2. For someone like this reviewer (who accepts that: a)IQ is normally distributed; b)can vary between racial groups; c) Jews have higher IQ and are capable of more things), this book is preaching to the converted.
3. If someone has not accepted these aforementioned aspects of IQ, this book may not convince them and so it would not be useful.
Verdict: Recommended at the price of about $1-2.
There are some number of Gentiles and some number of Jews. Within the Gentile population, there is X% of people that does this job/ has this metric. There is Y% of Jews that does the same job. The over/ under representation is expressed as Q= Y/X. If Q>1, then Jews are over-represented by some multiple (say as physicians or chess grand masters or upper income) and if Q<1 then they are underrepresented in that field (let's say as prisoners or in infant mortality rates). If Q=1 (in which case this book would not need to be written), then they are the same as everyone else.
The book covers (ad nauseum) several points in time/ space (France, Britain, United States, South Africa), but the it's the same story in a different place.
Thoughts:
1. I don't think that this book is something that you want to read from cover to cover because it's just a repetition of facts. It's not like there is any narrative/ story arc that explains how these things came to be. For that, you have to pick up other books. ( Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People and The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution come to mind as excellent choices.)
2. For someone like this reviewer (who accepts that: a)IQ is normally distributed; b)can vary between racial groups; c) Jews have higher IQ and are capable of more things), this book is preaching to the converted.
3. If someone has not accepted these aforementioned aspects of IQ, this book may not convince them and so it would not be useful.
Verdict: Recommended at the price of about $1-2.
4 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Top reviews from other countries
Roger Mendelson
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Scholarly and Confronting Book
Reviewed in Australia on January 6, 2017Verified Purchase
This is an easy read, backed by scholarly research and reaching conclusions which many will find confronting .Lynn is not afraid to express his views. I FOUND, as a layman in this area that most of the arguments and evidence could be easily followed. His final conclusions up about the possible end of Israel as a Jewish state is one I disagree with. ROGER MENDELSON.MELBOURNE








