The Mismeasure of Man

by Gould, Stephen Jay

• ISBN13: 9780393014891
• ISBN10: 0393014894
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1981-10-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

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. And yet the idea of innate limits - 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 by Stephen Jay Gould. In this edition Dr. 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, in a separate section at the end, on questions of The Bell Curve in particular and on race, racism, and biological determinism in general. These additions strengthen the claim of this book to be, as Leo J. Kamin of Princeton University has said, "a major contribution toward deflating pseudobiological 'explanations' of our present social woes".

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. 15
Introduction to the Revised and Expanded Edition Thoughts at Age Fifteen	p. 19
Introduction	p. 51
American Polygeny and Craniometry before Darwin Blacks and Indians as Separate, Inferior Species	p. 62
Measuring Heads Paul Broca and the Heyday of Craniology	p. 105
Measuring Bodies Two Case Studies on the Apishness of Undesirables	p. 142
The Hereditarian Theory of IQ an American Invention	p. 176
The Real Error of Cyril Burt Factor Analysis and the Reification of Intelligence	p. 264
A Positive Conclusion	p. 351
Epilogue	p. 365
Critique of the Bell Curve	p. 367
Three Centuries' Perspectives on Race and Racism	p. 391
Bibliography	p. 425
Index	p. 431
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