Rating: 
Summary: Class Structure Explained
Review: Readers who have not yet read this book will be surprised to learn that the main topic is not race, but how intelligence explains class structure. The authors argue that intelligence, not environment is the primary determinant of a variety of social behaviors, including class, socio-economic level, crime, educational achievement, welfare, and even parental styles. Hernstein and Murray back up these claims with some of the most persuasive data ever seen in the social sciences. The importance of a person's intelligence cannot be understated. Its is the number one determinant in shaping one's life. Hernstein and Murray do not stop there however. They go on, arguing that the bottom 15 percent in intelligence are simply not capable of taking care of themselves, falling into poverty, drugs, alchoholism, etc. American society can no longer accept such conditions for lower cognitive class. They make concrete suggestions on how to change this condition. They also make striking claims about the danger of affirmative action programs in promoting people who are not qualified to do important tasks. And finally, they deal with the issue that makes this book so controversial: The lower tested intelligence of African-Americans. At no point do they the claim the gap is only due to genetics. They suggest past environmental factors come into play. But their main point is that modern day racism cannot explain the gap, and programs designed to bridge that gap will fail, and putting underqualified individuals in important positions is not the answer. The authors really do not go into detail about why the gap exists, setting themselves up for criticism. But at least another scholar can research this topic and try and explain it. In sum, this book explains class structure in America, as well as the many of the social maladies of our time. It offers proof, and conrete solutions. It is a book of monumental importance, and cannot be denounced as racist. Those who make such claims either did not read the book, or are too biased to think objectively. As Murray notes in his new afterword, modern Sociology is riddled with taboos and self-censorship. The radical leftists who dominate the field do this country a great disservice by being so biased and non-objective. They also refuse to look at biology, relying only on environmental explanations, despite pyschology's growing reliance on genetic determinants of human behavior. The general public can only hope that the field right itself. Until it does, there will no solution to our most pressing social problems.
Rating:
Summary: Whether you'll agree or disagree, it's worth your time
Review: American Enterprise Institute academic Michael Ledeen was right to call "The Bell Curve" "the most moderate book in recent years to spark such an accusatorial controversy." While it's true that "The Bell Curve" draws many surprising and concerning conclusions, and some conclusions that some people find alarming, the issues are legitimate and merit consideration.The basic premises and theses of "The Bell Curve" are these: that intelligence, IQ, or (perhaps less inflammatorily) cognitive ability is a real, measurable, quantifiable characteristic of a human being; that different people tend to be assigned very different roles by society depending on their level of cognitive ability; that people of different cognitive abilities behave differently in some important ways; that cognitive ability is substantially heritable; and that different groups tend to have differing levels of cognitive ability. The authors support these theses using the (remarkably rich) body of literature on the subject. Their procedures are documented with great care and a tremendous variety of sources is cited. The book can be read at a number of levels. At its shortest, the book amounts to only some thirty pages in length. Each chapter begins with a summary that briefly outlines the conclusions that will be reached. The main text of the book is about 550 pages. The content consists chiefly of validation and explanation of the authors' claims, as well as some psychometric history, all of which is both fascinating and persuasive. In addition to the primary text, the book is replete with sidenotes, endnotes, and appendices, to say nothing of the hundreds of external sources to which we are referred in the bibliography. The authors' style is simultaneously informative, accessible, frank, cautious, and persuasive. Of especial interest to the skeptical (including me) is the afterword, in which one of the authors responds to recent critical commentary of "The Bell Curve." Whatever your position on psychometrics and whatever critical commentary you may have read on "The Bell Curve," this book is an indispensable tool that will allow you to survey the evidence for yourself. Like many who read the primary source rather than relying on biased commentaries, you may find that the logic, not to mention the statistics, of the authors is inescapable. Regardless of your personal beliefs, the book brings up issues that will be fundamental to the future of the human race. It is at least worth your examination.
Rating:
Summary: A BOOK WORTH READING
Review: IN TERMANN'S LOGITUDINAL STUDY BEGUN IN THE 1920s, "ONE HUNDRED STUDIES OF GENIUS" HIS GROUP STUDIED THE NON-ASIAN (EXCLUDED BECAUSE MOST SPOKE POOR ENGLISH AND WOULD DISTORT RESULTS) POPULATION OF CALIFORNIA AND CAME TO A CONCLUSION THAT JEWS HAVE TWICE THE RATE OF GENIUS OF THE GROUP AS A WHOLE AND BLACKS HAVE THE LOWEST IQ LEVEL OF ALL GROUPS STUDIED. THE HIGH SCORES FOR JEWS ARE WITHOUT DOUBT EXPLAINED BY CULTURAL-RELIGIOUS FACTORS. THE LOW SCORES FOR BLACKS ARE NOT SO OBVIOUS. ABOUT 30 OR 40 YEARS AGO A HARVARD MANAGEMENT PROFESSOR NAMED MCCLELLAN WROTE A PAPER ON WHAT HE CALLED "N-ACHIEVEMENT" (NEED FOR ACHIEVEMENT)IN WHICH AS PART OF HIS STUDY HE HAD PRE-TEEN SCHOOL CHILDREN IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES TAKE AN ARITHMETIC TEST TO ESTABLISH HOW MANY ANSWERS COULD BE PROVIDED TO MATH PROBLEMS WITHIN A GIVEN TIME SPAN. ALL COUNTRIES' CHILDREN SCORED ABOUT THE SAME EXCEPT INDIA. MCCLELLAN PROVIDED AN EXPLANATION THAT A CAST OF HINDUS HEAVILY REPRESENTED IN THE INDIAN GROUP PUT VERY STRONG EMPHASIS UPON TEACHING CHILDREN ARITHMETIC. THIS, TOO, WAS A CASE WHERE CULTURE CAUSED AN ABERRATION. BLACKS SCORE LOWER NOT ONLY ON SAT AND ACT TESTS FOR COLLEGE ENTRY BUT OTHER TESTS AS WELL SUCH AS THE MCAT (MEDICAL COLLEGE ACCEPTANCE TEST). THE FACT THAT JEWS AND A CASTE OF HINDUS SCORED EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH WITH RESULTS CULTURALLY EXPLAINABLE LEADS ONE TO CONCLUDE THAT THE LOW SCORES FOR BLACKS MAY ALSO BE CULTURALLY INDUCED. SOME OF THE RESULTS REPORTED IN "THE BELL CURVE" POINT TO A BIOLOGIC EXPLANATION. BUT SOMETHING IS WRONG. FOR INSTANCE IN CASES WHERE BLACK CHILDREN WERE RAISED BY WHITE FAMILIES AND DID POORLY ON TESTS AS A GROUP THE CONCLUSION OF GENETIC CAUSATION MAKES AN IMPLICIT ASSSUMPTION THAT THE EFFECT UPON THE CHILD WOULD RUN PARALLEL AND EQUAL TO A WHITE CHILD ADOPTED BY A WHITE FAMILY. THIS IS DOUBTFUL. IT DOES, OF COURSE, NOT EXCLUDE PEER PRESSURE BY BLACK MEDIA AND OTHER BLACK CHILDREN AND ADULTS TO WHICH THE ADOPTED BLACK CHILD WOULD BE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE THAN AN ADOPTED WHITE CHILD IN A WHITE FAMILY. EQUALLY QUESTIONABLE IS THE CONCLUSION THAT TESTING OF BLACK CHILDREN WHERE THEIR NATURAL FAMILIES WERE WELL-TO-DO SHOWED ACADEMIC RESULTS INFERIOR TO WHITE CHILDREN RAISED IN POVERTY. PEER PRESSURE, BLACK POPULAR FIGURES AND SUCH WOULD PLAY A ROLE IN THIS CASE WHICH WOULD BE DETRIMENTAL IN PART BECAUSE BLACK ENTERTAINMENT IS ADDRESSED TO A POPULAR AUDIENCE, NOT AN ACADEMICALLY ELITE AUDIENCE.. SOME ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ARE CLEARLY WORKING CONTRARY TO EDUCATION ORIENTED ACCOMPLISHMENT AMONG BLACK CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS, SUCH AS THE INFLUENCE OF HIP-HOP MUSIC AND THE GLORIFICATION OF VIOLANCE ON TV, THE REPETITION OF TRITE PHRASES BY BLACK PERFORMERS AND THE HIGHLY SIMPLIFIED BEAT OF MODERN BLACK MUSIC WHICH NUMB THE UNPROTECTED MIND. THERE IS A CLOSE PARALLEL TO THE MIND-NUMBING EFFECTS OF WARTIME PROPAGANDA FILMS ON UNSOPHISTICATED VIEWERS. IT WOULD SEEM FROM BLACKS' EXCELLING IN SUCH THINGS AS DANCING AND CERTAIN SPORTS THAT A MENTALITY EMPHASIZING SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS AS OPPOSED TO NON-SPATIAL THINKING MAY BE INDUCED INTO THE MINDS OF BLACK CHILDREN MORE THAN WHITE OR ASIAN CHILDREN. IT COULD EVEN BE THAT SUCH VARIATION IS PART OF HUMAN INSTINCT'S VARIATION. I DO NOT KNOW. TAKEN IN ISOLATION "THE BELL CURVE" CERTAINLY POINTS TO A BIOLOGIC BASIS FOR LOW TEST SCORES AMONG BLACKS. THE MEANINGFULNESS OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR BIOLOGIC BASES IS QUESTIONABLE TAKEN IN THE CONTEXT OF LIFE EXPERIENCE AND THE SIMILAR, THOUGH REVERSED, EXPERIENCE OF JEWS AND SOME CASTES OF HINDUS AS WELL AS TO THE GENERAL EXPERIENCE OF CHINESE IN EAST ASIA OUTSIDE CHINA AND IN THE WEST THAT EXPERIENTIAL FACTORS MAY PLAY A MUCH GREATER PART IN BLACK ACADEMIC UNDERACHIEVEMENT AS A GROUP THAN BIOLOGIC FACTORS. AS FAR AS ATTACKS UPON THE STATISTICAL METHODOLOGIES USED BY THE AUTHORS ARE CONCERNED, THEY AR\O\PPEAR UNWARRANTED EXCEPT WHERE THEY SUPPORT THE BIOLOGIC ORIGINS OF BLACK UNDERACHIEVEMENT. THE METHOD OF REACHING CONCLUSIONS, NOT THE STATISTICAL METHODOLOGIES, IS IN DOUBT. NEVERTHELESS, BECAUSE OTHER SOURCES CONFIRM THE BASIC CONCLUSION THAT BLACKS AS A WHOLE ARE DOING ACADEMICALLY LESS WELL THAN FOLKS OF EITHER EUROPEAN OR ASIAN BACKGROUND, THIS CONCLUSION IN "THE BELL CURVE" SEEMS WELL ESTABLISHED. THERE WILL ALWAYS, AS LONG AS PEOPLE VARY BY RELIGION, CULTURE AND SUCH, BE DIFFERENCES IN IQ AND SIMILAR TEST SCORES. EVERYTHING IN LIFE IS CULTURALLY BIASED. THE ONLY WAY TO KNOW THE NATIVE INTELLECTS OF INDIVIDUALS OR GROUPS IS TO DO SOME SORT OF SCIENCE FICTION IQ TEST WITHIN 5 MINUTES AFTER BIRTH. AT PRESENT PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE NATURE v CULTURE DEBATE ARE IN THE DARK. IT IS OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE THAT BOTH ARE IMKPORTANT. IT IS OBVIOUS THAT READING MAIMONIDES IS GOING TO HAVE AN INFLUENCE DIFFERENT FROM READING COMIC BOOKS. BUT WHO IS TO SAY THE COMIC BOOK READER COULD NOT UNDERSTAND MAIMONIDES AS WELL AS THE OTHER READER HAD HE BEEN INTRODUCED TO MAIMONIDES INSTEAD OF OR AS WELL AS COMIC BOOKS--AND BENEFIT AS MUCH FROM THE THOUGH PROCESSES INTRODUCED BY MAIMONIDES AS ANYONE. OF COURSE PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE, MORE PARENTS ARE GOING TO LET THEIR CHILDREN READ COMIC BOOKS THAN ARE GOING TO LEAD THEIR CHILDREN TO MAIMONIDES--OR SHAKSPEARE OR ARISTOTLE. ALL OF US ARE BORN IGNORANT AND LOTS OF PEOPLE, OUT OF DUTY OR FOR FUN OR PROFIT, TAKE IT UPON THEMSELVES TO KEEP US IGNORANT OR TEACH A LOT OF STUFF THAT AIN'T SO. THEY ARE MUCH EASIER TO FIND THAN PEOPLE WHO REALLY UNDERSTAND AND ARE WILLING TO TEACH. THE MORE RESPECT A KID HAS FOR THESE IGNORANCE MONGERS, THE LOWER IS GOING TO BE HIS ACADEMIC ACOMPLISHMENT.
Rating: 
Summary: An Important Contribution to Sociological Issues
Review: Although this book did have its share of statistical flaws, questionable assumptions, and an over exaggerated notion about the consensus in psychometric testing, it was nevertheless a refreshing alternative to the sterile Marxian-lite analysis that passes for sociology these days. The authors offer a new framework in which to interpet social life and public policy. Even though the critics of this work attack it as pseudo-science and right-wing "racism", the work devoted scant attention to racial differences in intellectual capacity, and numerous pages to the role intelligence, measured by IQ, has in predicting life outcomes. Accordingly, the greatest predictor for whether you will end up in poverty, have a child out-of-wedlock, be incarcerated, hold a steady job etc. is IQ. This applies equally to blacks, hispanics, whites, asians, and Jews. Not surprisingly, when the authors do discuss racial (or ethnic) differences in intelligence they do highlight the fact that american blacks score 1 SD (or 15 points) below that of whites. However, is this controversial, or even in dispute? The authors are not the ones who designed the tests, they are simply reporting a widely available social statistic that is accessible to anyone. Is there any IQ test, or test of any kind that shows parity between whites and blacks? Even Stephan Gould does not deny this racial discrepancy exists and there has been no test to date to support the egalitarian fairy-tale. What we have here is just a vicious smear campaign attacking the messenger. Of course we also hear the popular claim that race is a social construction, and is therefore a meaningless criteria for social analysis. What is meant by a "social construction" is never said, although I imagine it is imbued with left-over vestiges of Marxian thought which deems all arts, science and literature an illusion until the fateful day of the workers revolution. Race can be defined as a sub-species that has shared a separate breeding population. This does not require that there be race a gene, it means that a race (or sub-species)is manifested by an array of different gene frequencies within a population. Zoologists are able to classify separate breeds of dogs without suggesting that there is a Siberian Husky gene which singulary distinguishes it from the Great Pyrrenes gene. Whether one accepts the Candellabra or the Eve-hypothesis of modern human evolution, both are fully able to account for racial differences in Europeans, Asians, and Africans. Classifying humans according to race is no less scientific than it is with dogs, bears, apes, cats, and so on. Reminding ourselves that we are a biological species susceptible to natural selection and the laws of hereditary is not going to extol the sentiments of egalitarian cranks who understand hieracrchy, inequality, dominance and power are the chief features of evolution witnessed everyday in the animal world. Equality is as alien to nature and her hand-mainden evolution, as fire is to snow. The Bell Curve was an important attempt to get the debate back on the right track. The authors should be commended.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, and implying frightening consequences
Review: In reading the synopses above and the few negative reviews below, I have to wonder if their authors read the book in question, or merely the media hype. This book is not about "ethnicity and intelligence." It's not racism, nor even about race. This book tries to show that A) people are becoming stratified according to intelligence (you go to school with, work with, and largely socialize with people of similar ability) and B) many of our social problems can be explained in terms of differences in intelligence (ie, in blunt terms, dumb people are more likely to commit crimes, etc.) They provide a huge base of data to support their thesis. The authors have bent over backwards to try to avoid any hint of racism in their studies; the only place the issue even arises is when they report that blacks and Latinos have historically scored lower in IQ tests than have whites, and that Asians have scored higher, and that the claims of "cultural bias" are ! not supported by any data or studies. These details alone are enough to inflame the politically correct among us, unfortunately. To portray this book as some type of white supremecist manifesto, you would have to have a strong agenda of your own, and totally disregard the content of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Nobody who believes that that genetics play a role in intelligence denies that enviorment does play some role also, even Hitler understood that the enviroment was important. Yet to even mention to "product of our enviroment" people that genetics plays just as big a role is regarded as blasphemy. Why is that?
This book does an excellent job at showing that genetics plays just as big a role if not bigger a role in determining intelligence then the enviorment does. Read the book and see for yourself which side has a better case.
Rating:
Summary: A BOOK WORTH READING
Review: IN TERMANN'S LOGITUDINAL STUDY BEGUN IN THE 1920s, "ONE HUNDRED STUDIES OF GENIUS" HIS GROUP STUDIED THE NON-ASIAN (EXCLUDED BECAUSE MOST SPOKE POOR ENGLISH AND WOULD DISTORT RESULTS) POPULATION OF CALIFORNIA AND CAME TO A CONCLUSION THAT JEWS HAVE TWICE THE RATE OF GENIUS OF THE GROUP AS A WHOLE AND BLACKS HAVE THE LOWEST IQ LEVEL OF ALL GROUPS STUDIED. THE HIGH SCORES FOR JEWS ARE WITHOUT DOUBT EXPLAINED BY CULTURAL-RELIGIOUS FACTORS. THE LOW SCORES FOR BLACKS ARE NOT SO OBVIOUS. ABOUT 30 OR 40 YEARS AGO A HARVARD MANAGEMENT PROFESSOR NAMED MCCLELLAN WROTE A PAPER ON WHAT HE CALLED "N-ACHIEVEMENT" (NEED FOR ACHIEVEMENT)IN WHICH AS PART OF HIS STUDY HE HAD PRE-TEEN SCHOOL CHILDREN IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES TAKE AN ARITHMETIC TEST TO ESTABLISH HOW MANY ANSWERS COULD BE PROVIDED TO MATH PROBLEMS WITHIN A GIVEN TIME SPAN. ALL COUNTRIES' CHILDREN SCORED ABOUT THE SAME EXCEPT INDIA. MCCLELLAN PROVIDED AN EXPLANATION THAT A CAST OF HINDUS HEAVILY REPRESENTED IN THE INDIAN GROUP PUT VERY STRONG EMPHASIS UPON TEACHING CHILDREN ARITHMETIC. THIS, TOO, WAS A CASE WHERE CULTURE CAUSED AN ABERRATION. BLACKS SCORE LOWER NOT ONLY ON SAT AND ACT TESTS FOR COLLEGE ENTRY BUT OTHER TESTS AS WELL SUCH AS THE MCAT (MEDICAL COLLEGE ACCEPTANCE TEST). THE FACT THAT JEWS AND A CASTE OF HINDUS SCORED EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH WITH RESULTS CULTURALLY EXPLAINABLE LEADS ONE TO CONCLUDE THAT THE LOW SCORES FOR BLACKS MAY ALSO BE CULTURALLY INDUCED. SOME OF THE RESULTS REPORTED IN "THE BELL CURVE" POINT TO A BIOLOGIC EXPLANATION. BUT SOMETHING IS WRONG. FOR INSTANCE IN CASES WHERE BLACK CHILDREN WERE RAISED BY WHITE FAMILIES AND DID POORLY ON TESTS AS A GROUP THE CONCLUSION OF GENETIC CAUSATION MAKES AN IMPLICIT ASSSUMPTION THAT THE EFFECT UPON THE CHILD WOULD RUN PARALLEL AND EQUAL TO A WHITE CHILD ADOPTED BY A WHITE FAMILY. THIS IS DOUBTFUL. IT DOES, OF COURSE, NOT EXCLUDE PEER PRESSURE BY BLACK MEDIA AND OTHER BLACK CHILDREN AND ADULTS TO WHICH THE ADOPTED BLACK CHILD WOULD BE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE THAN AN ADOPTED WHITE CHILD IN A WHITE FAMILY. EQUALLY QUESTIONABLE IS THE CONCLUSION THAT TESTING OF BLACK CHILDREN WHERE THEIR NATURAL FAMILIES WERE WELL-TO-DO SHOWED ACADEMIC RESULTS INFERIOR TO WHITE CHILDREN RAISED IN POVERTY. PEER PRESSURE, BLACK POPULAR FIGURES AND SUCH WOULD PLAY A ROLE IN THIS CASE WHICH WOULD BE DETRIMENTAL IN PART BECAUSE BLACK ENTERTAINMENT IS ADDRESSED TO A POPULAR AUDIENCE, NOT AN ACADEMICALLY ELITE AUDIENCE.. SOME ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ARE CLEARLY WORKING CONTRARY TO EDUCATION ORIENTED ACCOMPLISHMENT AMONG BLACK CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS, SUCH AS THE INFLUENCE OF HIP-HOP MUSIC AND THE GLORIFICATION OF VIOLANCE ON TV, THE REPETITION OF TRITE PHRASES BY BLACK PERFORMERS AND THE HIGHLY SIMPLIFIED BEAT OF MODERN BLACK MUSIC WHICH NUMB THE UNPROTECTED MIND. THERE IS A CLOSE PARALLEL TO THE MIND-NUMBING EFFECTS OF WARTIME PROPAGANDA FILMS ON UNSOPHISTICATED VIEWERS. IT WOULD SEEM FROM BLACKS' EXCELLING IN SUCH THINGS AS DANCING AND CERTAIN SPORTS THAT A MENTALITY EMPHASIZING SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS AS OPPOSED TO NON-SPATIAL THINKING MAY BE INDUCED INTO THE MINDS OF BLACK CHILDREN MORE THAN WHITE OR ASIAN CHILDREN. IT COULD EVEN BE THAT SUCH VARIATION IS PART OF HUMAN INSTINCT'S VARIATION. I DO NOT KNOW. TAKEN IN ISOLATION "THE BELL CURVE" CERTAINLY POINTS TO A BIOLOGIC BASIS FOR LOW TEST SCORES AMONG BLACKS. THE MEANINGFULNESS OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR BIOLOGIC BASES IS QUESTIONABLE TAKEN IN THE CONTEXT OF LIFE EXPERIENCE AND THE SIMILAR, THOUGH REVERSED, EXPERIENCE OF JEWS AND SOME CASTES OF HINDUS AS WELL AS TO THE GENERAL EXPERIENCE OF CHINESE IN EAST ASIA OUTSIDE CHINA AND IN THE WEST THAT EXPERIENTIAL FACTORS MAY PLAY A MUCH GREATER PART IN BLACK ACADEMIC UNDERACHIEVEMENT AS A GROUP THAN BIOLOGIC FACTORS. AS FAR AS ATTACKS UPON THE STATISTICAL METHODOLOGIES USED BY THE AUTHORS ARE CONCERNED, THEY AR\O\PPEAR UNWARRANTED EXCEPT WHERE THEY SUPPORT THE BIOLOGIC ORIGINS OF BLACK UNDERACHIEVEMENT. THE METHOD OF REACHING CONCLUSIONS, NOT THE STATISTICAL METHODOLOGIES, IS IN DOUBT. NEVERTHELESS, BECAUSE OTHER SOURCES CONFIRM THE BASIC CONCLUSION THAT BLACKS AS A WHOLE ARE DOING ACADEMICALLY LESS WELL THAN FOLKS OF EITHER EUROPEAN OR ASIAN BACKGROUND, THIS CONCLUSION IN "THE BELL CURVE" SEEMS WELL ESTABLISHED. THERE WILL ALWAYS, AS LONG AS PEOPLE VARY BY RELIGION, CULTURE AND SUCH, BE DIFFERENCES IN IQ AND SIMILAR TEST SCORES. EVERYTHING IN LIFE IS CULTURALLY BIASED. THE ONLY WAY TO KNOW THE NATIVE INTELLECTS OF INDIVIDUALS OR GROUPS IS TO DO SOME SORT OF SCIENCE FICTION IQ TEST WITHIN 5 MINUTES AFTER BIRTH. AT PRESENT PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE NATURE v CULTURE DEBATE ARE IN THE DARK. IT IS OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE THAT BOTH ARE IMKPORTANT. IT IS OBVIOUS THAT READING MAIMONIDES IS GOING TO HAVE AN INFLUENCE DIFFERENT FROM READING COMIC BOOKS. BUT WHO IS TO SAY THE COMIC BOOK READER COULD NOT UNDERSTAND MAIMONIDES AS WELL AS THE OTHER READER HAD HE BEEN INTRODUCED TO MAIMONIDES INSTEAD OF OR AS WELL AS COMIC BOOKS--AND BENEFIT AS MUCH FROM THE THOUGH PROCESSES INTRODUCED BY MAIMONIDES AS ANYONE. OF COURSE PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE, MORE PARENTS ARE GOING TO LET THEIR CHILDREN READ COMIC BOOKS THAN ARE GOING TO LEAD THEIR CHILDREN TO MAIMONIDES--OR SHAKSPEARE OR ARISTOTLE. ALL OF US ARE BORN IGNORANT AND LOTS OF PEOPLE, OUT OF DUTY OR FOR FUN OR PROFIT, TAKE IT UPON THEMSELVES TO KEEP US IGNORANT OR TEACH A LOT OF STUFF THAT AIN'T SO. THEY ARE MUCH EASIER TO FIND THAN PEOPLE WHO REALLY UNDERSTAND AND ARE WILLING TO TEACH. THE MORE RESPECT A KID HAS FOR THESE IGNORANCE MONGERS, THE LOWER IS GOING TO BE HIS ACADEMIC ACOMPLISHMENT.
Rating:
Summary: Virtual Hogwash!
Review: -
The conclusions of Herrstein, Murray (et al) have since been proven to be virtual hogwash. Social statification involves a multiplicity of variables, of which IQ per se is less important than Herrstein and company believe it to be. Interestingly, Herrstein claims that while the MEAN IQ for the American population at large is 100, American Ashkanazi (Polish) Jews have a mean average IQ of 103 (three points above the overall average), and African Americans have a mean average IQ of 84 (sixteen points below the national average). Examples: Barry Goldwater, who happens to be of Ashkanazi Jewish ancestry, according to biographer Alan Goldberg, had a documented IQ of only 103. HE'S RIGHT ON THE ASKANAZI JEW MEAN AVERAGE! President John Kennedy had a documented IQ of 117. Vice President Agnew, with a reported IQ of 180+, quickly lost his high ranking social position when he was found guilty by a court of law of doing STUPID things, like demanding kickbacks from contractors. Although Herrstein places African Americans at the bottom of his mean IQ heirarchy, convicted serial killer Gary Heidnik, whose facial characteristics suggest a trace of African American ancestry, had a documented IQ of 145. The success of billionaire media queen Oprah Winfrey and others like her suggests that Herrstein and company have wasted a lot of ink and paper. They need to do some serious RETHINKING about the relationship between "race," MEAN IQ and social stratificaiton. Much of what Herrstein attributes to race, other scientists attribute to cultural and political influences.
Rating: 
Summary: It Doesn't Add Up
Review: After hearing all the hype about this book, both pro and con, I decided I needed to read it to see for myself what the truth was. The main problem I had was that, because of previous arguments I had read, I knew where to find the data that was used to write the book. To say that the data was incorrectly interepted would by giving too much credit to the authors. This book has been dismissed as being fraudulent by the leading social, medical and intellectual societies, and I agree with them. Don't waste you time or money on "The Bell Curve."
Rating: 
Summary: I, like, didn't get it.
Review: I, like, didn't understand most of this book. It had, like, lots of big words and used, like, a bunch of graphs I did not understand. I don't think I have a high enough IQ to understand this book.
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