Rating: 
Summary: Of intelligence, genetics, and environments (again)
Review: Steven J. Gould is most famous among the general public for his collections of essays from his long Natural History series, "This View of Life". But the best of Gould's writing is perhaps to be found in his single-theme books. And The Mismeasure of Man is arguably the finest among them. The volume is about the long history of the search for scientific justification of racism, and the many faux pas that science has committed when it comes to the study of human intelligence. The 1996 edition of the classic 1981 book also contains some interesting addenda: "Critique of the Bell Curve", and "Three Centuries' Perspective on Race and Racism" (as well as a new introduction), just in case you were not convinced by the arguments lined out in the main text. The Mismeasure can conceptually be divided in two parts: the first deals with the misapplication of measurements of the human body (cranial capacity and facial features), the second one is concerned with the mind (IQ and generalized intelligence). In both cases, Gould follows the same approach that has been so successful in some of his technical opuses, such as Ontogeny and Phylogeny: he tracks the history of a discipline or scientific question, highlights the contributions and discusses the motives of the major players, while simultaneously plunging into the technical aspects of the science behind the problem. So, for example, in order to find out why measuring the cranial capacity of the human head does not tell you much about intelligence, we are introduced to biologists of the caliper of Louis Agassiz (Gould currently holds his chair at Harvard), Samuel George Morton, Francis Galton (Darwin's cousin), and - of course - Paul Broca, the father of craniometry. It is indeed fascinating to find out that theories of the origin of human races actually preceded Charles Darwin and evolutionary thinking, with the "polygenic" school apparently providing solid basis for racism: if the term "human" comprises different species, it is only natural that we rank them according to their biological worth (needless to say, the "objective" ranking invariably ended up putting the author's race - and gender - in pole position, and somewhat ahead of everybody else). The supporters of the opposing theory of "monogenism" were by no means kinder to other races, though. Their argument was that there was only one Adam, and that every human race descended from him, and degenerated to a greater or lesser extent (again, you guess who degenerated more and who the least). Regardless of the premise, all we needed to know according to craniometrists was the size of the brain (as estimated by the internal volume of the cranium) and we will know how intelligent (and thereby "worthy") any individual or race really is. Now, one could object that there is indeed a good correlation between cranial capacity and what we intuitively think of as intelligence among animals. After all, biology textbooks report diagrams showing that carnivores have larger brains than herbivores, regardless of body size. And the accompanying explanation makes sense: carnivores need larger brains because they have to process more information and more quickly, they have to face a larger variety of situations, and be able to make a larger number of vital decisions. In other words, they need to be smarter. Gould acknowledges this, but quickly - and correctly - points out that variation across species does not have to have the same cause and meaning as variation within species. He illustrates this with an array of definitely intelligent people whose brain sizes covered almost the whole gamut displayed by non-pathological individuals. However, this is indeed one of the troublesome aspects of this book and, I dare say, of Gould's writing in general. He dismisses contrary evidence or arguments so fast that one gets the impression of seeing a magician performing a trick. One cannot avoid the feeling of having being duped by the quickness of the magician's movement, instead of having observed a genuine phenomenon. In this particular instance, I can vouch for Gould as a biologist, but I'm not so sure that the general public is willing to trust him on his word. After having dismissed both craniometry and the aberrant work of Cesare Lombroso on the anthropological stigmata of criminals, Gould moves on to his main target: IQ and intelligence testing. IQ testing was originally introduced by the French psychologist Alfred Binet with the intention of spotting children who were falling behind in the curriculum, so that teachers could pay particular attention to them. Alas, such a noble intent soon fell victim to the human tendency of ranking everything, and led to an astounding series of "scientific" enterprises characterized by deep racist overtones. H.H. Goddard saw the feeble-minded (the technical term being "moron") as a menace to society; we should care for him, but we should not allow him to reproduce. One of the ghastly consequences of the eugenic movement in the US was the enactment of immigration restriction laws based on perceived racial inferiority, and the actual forced sterilization of individuals deemed genetically inferior: for a few years the United States teetered on the brink of the same precipice over which Nazi Germany readily dove around the same time. One of the chief obstacles to the use of IQ scores is that there are several ways to devise an IQ test, and the results of different tests are not always congruent when performed on the same subjects. But if we have to use a battery of tests, and then somehow weigh their discrepancies, we lose one major attraction of IQ testing: the ability of ranking human beings on a simple, uni-linear scale of worth. Charles Spearman and Cyril Burt set out to accomplish the feat of reducing multiple-tests complexity once again to a single magical number. Burt was a disciple of Spearman (himself one of the founding fathers of modern statistics) and later claimed to have made contributions to the theory of factor analysis which where in fact Spearman's. Gould plunges into one of the best explanations I have ever come across of the multivariate statistical technique of factor analysis, fundamental to both Spearman's and Burt's work. This allows the reader to gain some understanding of a very important tool in modern biostatistics (one that Gould himself uses for his own technical research), while at the same time being able to follow Gould in highlighting the fundamental problems which Spearman and Burt incurred. Simply put, factor analysis is a statistical technique based on the rotation of orthogonal axes in multivariate (i.e., multidimensional) space. This reduces a complex data set (say, made of the results of ten different IQ tests) to a manageable number of linear combinations of the original variables. This smaller set of dimensions identifies the principal "factors" which explain the correlation structure in the original data. Spearman's suggestion was that all IQ tests have one principal factor in common. That is, the scores on each test are correlated to each other, because they all reflect one underlying quantity, which Spearman named "g", or general intelligence. Spearman therefore provided one of the two pillars of the eugenic movement: there seemed indeed to be one way to rank individuals by their intelligence with the use of one number: this was the score on the g-factor, instead of the score on any of the available IQ tests. Burt's major achievement was a supposed confirmation of the second fundamental piece of the puzzle eugenic puzzle: his studies of genetically identical twins suggested a high heritability (incorrectly read as a high level of genetic determination) of intelligence. So, not only do individuals differ in intelligence, but this is easy to measure and genetically determined. Environment, and with it education and social welfare, cannot alter the innate difference among individuals, genders, and races. QED Well, not really.
Rating: 
Summary: A politically correct travesty of the truth.
Review: This attempt to smear sociobiology with ancient statistics, is as dishonest a book as you can find. Read it twice, the first time it will seem convincing, the second you will see the cheap tricks that are used to push through the politically correct untruths.
Rating:
Summary: Biological determinism unmasked. An important work.
Review: A meticulous expose of the both the folly and the danger of the theory of biological determinism.
Gould deftly recounts the historical progression of man's attempt to assign a particular value to various ethno-social groups, (via reification and ranking), whose worth is determined by socially-imbeded and, therefore, biased scientific research.
This is an important and fascinating work which should be considered required reading. Masterful.
Rating:
Summary: Essential insights into race and intelligence
Review: Actually quite an important book, charting the history of misguided but determined attempts to rank people in one way or another. You need to slog through the statistics to really understand; take the time--helps you to argue with those who throw statistics around for their own purposes. Teaches an important and eye-opening lesson: just because you can measure it doesn't necessarily mean it's there. Also see Gould's "Full House" for more insight into variability as the essence of biology.
Rating: 
Summary: Numbers, statistics, and more numbers!
Review: This book is great for people that love numbers and statistical analysis. Personally, I felt at times overwhelmed whith their abundance and almost missed the point of the whole book. The author does make some interesting and enlightening points about the fallacies of craniometry and intelligence testing. A great book to read if you want a dense, complete summary of anthropological and psychological thinking past and present.
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Summary: Effectively skewers old standbys of "scientific" racism
Review: A fascinating examination of bigoted pseudoscience of the last two centuries. The technical discourses can be bewildering to those of us not mathematically-versed but in general "Mismeasure of Man" is a pleasant stake through the heart of scientized racism
Rating:
Summary: Chronicling the vicious circle of prejudice and bad science.
Review: Gould attacks the twin pillars of racist pseudo-science -- craniometry and IQ testing. He carefully clears away
the assumptions and prejudice clouding some of the last
150 years' most influential studies -- all of which conveniently
showed that the scientists' class/race/gender was far
superior, and certainly deserving of elevated social status.
Conversely, minorities and women were perpetually "deserving"
of second-class status (at best). Fascinating, humorous,
infuriating. The first edition was one of the best books
I had ever read. The new version adds material pertaining
to "The Bell Curve", fingering it as the same old arguments
in new clothing.
Rating: 
Summary: graduate student
Review: Gould's book was well written and easily comprehensible. A number of excellent points were discussed. However, I was disappointed by his total refutation of the Bell Curve. The degree that "g" measures this abstract controversial, concept of intelligence is the the degree that the conclusions in The Bell Curve are correct. If "g" does not exist or is not a valid measurement of intelligence, the foundation of the Bell Curve will be destroyed. But I have met people with 90 IQ's and other with 140+; there seems to be a difference in their ability to grasp concepts and figure out problems. If 100 people with 140+ IQ's and 100 people with < 90 IQ's were pited against one another to solve a complex problem, I believe the 140+ would win most of the time. Dr. Gould is professor at Harvard; how much exposure does he really have with low IQ individuals? Bernstein and Murray avidly admit that IQ tests do err (testing error). And "g" may not be the best measure of intelligence, but IQ does seem to have some merit. Unfortunately, people are placing far, far too much importance on a simple number. "g" is just a rough (very blunt) estimate of intelligence. Ranking of people is impossible because the testing error as well as other factors that create too much mismeasurment AND the potential invalidity of IQ or "g." People should not pigeon-hole individuals with superior IQ's as "cognitively superior" or those with low IQ's as "cognitively inferior"--other factors besides IQ should be considered! But again, IQ does have some merit--the debate is how much. Yes, disadvantaged classes and races is an issue with IQ (group differences). The Bell Curve is not primarily about that. Read the Bell Curve; the main theme is that people have different cognitive abilities. However, Hernstein and Murray briefly discuss potential group differences, but the author reminds the reader of the overlap between groups and more important within group variance. Hernstein and Murray warn that people should not be judged by what group they belong to. In addition, other factors may explain group differences, which Gould explicates--in my opinion, Hernstein and Murray do not discuss the group differences adequately. But I still agree with The Bell Curve that certain people are more intelligent than other individuals (I disagree with the group differences). Read both "The Mismeasurement of Man" and "The Bell Curve" Both of them have great arguments for both sides.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent review of the errors of standardized testing
Review: Gould's Mismeasure of Man is a wonderful book on the history of the concept of testable intelligence and the limits of standardized testing. I taught standardized tests for graduate school, law school, medical school, dental school and an array of undergraduate enterance exams. I have also taught variations on IQ tests. Mr. Gould confirms what I have learned first-hand: no test, no matter how long or well-designed, can quantify human potential objectively. He makes eloquent arguments, several of which are based in mathematics. Although I am not qualified to make a statement on the quality of his statements in psychology, I have a degree in mathematics and I can say honestly that within his mathematical arguments his reasoning is sound. An extraordinary book for anyone who is curious about the testing industry and standardized tests in general, and an absolute must-read for anyone facing a standardized test sometime soon.
Rating:
Summary: compelling and eye-opening
Review: mr. gould certainly has his flaws, but this book is extensively researched, well-written, and full of excellent logic and analysis. i especially appreciated his essay (added to later editions of the book) about 'the bell curve'. plus ça change...
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