Synopsis
The controversial New York Times national bestseller - now updated with a comprehensive response to critics. Covered on front pages around the world - reviled, praised, defended, and deplored - -this seminal examination of the relationship between ethnicity and intelligence has "kicked up more reaction than any other social-science book of this decade" (David Brooks, The Wall Street Journal).

Synopsis
In a book that is certain to ignite an explosive controversy, Herrnstein and Murray dare to reveal their belief that it is intelligence levels, not environmental circumstances, poverty, or lack of education that are at the root of many of our social problems.

Simon & Schuster
The ability to manipulate information has become the single most important element of success. High intelligence is an increasingly precious raw material. But despite decades of fashionable denial, the overriding and insistent truth about intellectual ability is that it is endowed unequally. In The Bell Curve, author Charles Murray explores the ways that low intelligence, independent of social, economic, or ethnic background, lies at the root of many of our social problems. He also discusses another taboo subject: that intelligence levels differ among ethnic groups. According to the authors, only by facing up to these differences can we accurately assess the nation's problems and make realistic plans to address them. However, if we accept that there are intelligence differences among groups, we must learn to avoid prejudicial assumptions about any individual of a given group whose intelligence level may be anywhere under the bell curve.

Customer Comments

Is the problem with the book, or its readers?
Perhaps the most important part of this book, from a public policy standpoint, is not what everyone wants to focus on, but rather Chapter 18, which discusses the shift in public education away from a (partially) elitist model to a decidedly dumb one. As politically incorrect as it is to say, we are committing the public-policy equivalent of a felony in not offering a truly world-class education to the majority of that percentage of public school students who might otherwise be the deep thinkers we will need.

(It should go without saying that this does NOT mean that we shouldn't also educate everyone else to the best of their abilities. We CAN do both; these are not mutually exclusive goals.)

We instead *deny* nearly everyone the *chance* to excel. How can we be surprised at what we have wrought. The *students* aren't dumb, but, in all honesty (I teach at the university level), there's just no *reason* for them to bust their butts. The game is rigged, and they know it. We all lose, including especially those minority students who should be kicking intellectual ass. Instead, we pamper them with pablum, bore them to tears, and then take away the true *accomplishment* that should attend whatever medals (admissions, jobs, etc.) they might otherwise earn.

As someone involved in education for many decades, I can attest to the accuracy of this chapter, and I look with sadness as we create new generations of bored, marginally educated rebels-without-causes. To be honest, most of my generation (even in university) were dullards, too. But at least those who weren't had the opportunity (and pressure) to truly learn, and not just get by. ...And there wasn't quite the same assumption that if you were a plumber, or whatever, you were nothing. Instead, we now tell *all* students that if they don't get *at least* a Bachelor's, they *are* nothing. Worse than nothing.

Why are we surprised when we end up with a system filled with people who just shouldn't be there. Let them in, of course, but make them earn their stay.

One example of this dumbing down, which I suppose shouldn't surprise me, but does, anyway: In recent news, at least two *national* newscasters reported that the earthquake in Taiwan was "about equal" to the one in Turkey. Apparently, even the folks in the *highest newsrooms in the land* didn't (1) know the Richter scale is *logarithmic* and thus 7.6 is **2 1/2 TIMES** more powerful than 7.4 (although they're both serious), or (2) think enough to ASK someone, like a mathematician or geologist, who *does* know. That's just pathetic.

What should be basic knowledge... doesn't even occur to them.

Also, it's apparent from several of the reviews that the reviewers either didn't read the book, or are so caught up in their own psychodramas that they simply cannot read objectively.

If you disagree with the conclusions, fine. If you think We the People just can't handle the conclusions, and thus they shouldn't be printed, fine. But don't make stuff up. At the very least, *learn about thine enemy*: Faking it will only strengthen the enemy's hand in the future.

A reader from Dover, DE, September 22, 1999
All men are created equal... in what?
Jefferson did us a disservice by confusing us on the concept of equality from the very beginning. He should have been clear and said, "All men are created with equal inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and equal protection of the law. Governments are instituted among men in order to secure these rights, and ensure that anyone who tramples on the rights of others forfeits their rights in accordance with due process of law." By leaving the concept open-ended -"All men are created equal" - he left us with the ambiguous concept that somehow humans can be "equal" to each other, like numbers can be equal to each other.

I say that when the concept of equality is applied to humans, it must never be left hanging, but the blank in the phrase, "equal in ....." must be filled. Equal in position? wealth? talent? height? compassion? beauty? villainy? God forbid, intelligence? I read this book, "The Bell Curve" pretty much from cover to cover. I found that it was backed up with enormous amounts of studies, data, thoughtful analysis, and it accorded with experience. A lot of people may not LIKE the facts the authors lay out, nor the conclusions to which they come, and refuse to believe them because of their passionate belief in an ambiguous "equality." A lot of people didn't want to believe Copernican astronomy either, and attacked Copernicus and Gallileo.

Make no mistake, egalitarian ideology is the enemy to science as much or more so than religion ever was. But facts are stubborn things. No one disputes that blacks and Hispanics score lower on standardized tests than whites and Asians. The big dispute is over why and whether it can be changed. Murray and Hernnstein give the evidence for why they think intelligence is 60-80% genetic. I repeat, they give EVIDENCE, and anybody who disputes their findings must counter it with opposing evidence, not simply huff and puff and denounce the authors as somehow immoral. One more thought. Another reviewer here said that equality is an alien concept in nature and the animal world. In his words, "hierarchy, inequality, dominance, and power are the chief features of evolution."

If we are part of the evolutionary process, then "equality", is contrary to reality. It is OBVIOUS that people are unequal in abilities and intelligence, and this has a definite bearing on life outcomes. Funny thing, Christianity says that we are equal before God, but never tried to claim that we are equal in any other way, nor does it try to dismantle hierarchy or suppress economic diversity. Jesus said, "The poor will always be with us." So both of the main belief systems on the origin of life, Darwinian evolution and Judeo-Christian theology, accept inequality as an immutable fact of life. If Jefferson were alive, he would be fascinated by where his unclear syntax has led us, and perhaps would want to clarify, as above.

daviscds@infonet.isl.net from Oronoco, MN, September 15, 1999
Interesting, Thought-provoking, Well-Written
Some people can run faster than others, and some can run very fast, indeed. Some can jump higher than others, and some can jump very high, indeed. Some people can throw a baseball faster and more accurately than others, and some few are extraordinarily fast and accurate. All of this is obvious. Equally obvious, to most of us at any rate, is the fact that no matter how hard most of us try, we simply lack the inherit ability to be professional baseball pitchers. We lack the basic physical assets necessary to pitch in the major leagues. Obviously environment (nutrition, exercise, etc.) affects how well we could pitch, and obviously most of us couch-potatoes would be better pitchers if we worked really hard at it, but we would never be qualified to pitch for the Yankees, however hard we tried. Simply put, there is a genetic component to the ability to play baseball.

Why, then, should it seem so strange that there is a genetic component to intelligence? "The Bell Curve" argues that there is, and that between 40 and 80% of intelligence is accounted for by this genetic component. Other than our desire, our *wish* that everyone be equal at birth, what reason is there for thinking that they *are*?

"The Bell Curve" goes on to say that people who are more intelligent *tend* to be more successful at most jobs, and this tendency is higher in jobs that are more intellectually challenging. Isn't this pretty obvious? Don't we all know people who seem to pick things up more easily, and see more deeply into problems, and come up with better, more fruitful conclusions? Call that anything you like - "intelligence," "giftedness," "IQ," it doesn't matter. The point is, some people consistently perform better, and "The Bell Curve" makes a sustained, interesting and persuasive argument that we can predict who they are with impressive reliability by means of testing.

Donald from Duckburg, U.S.A., September 5, 1999
What's Next?
The Bell Curve is a sorry little book that does nothing more than reintroduce outdated racial stereotypes in a pretty, academic-like wrapping.

What's next for Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray? A revival of Phrenology?

A reader from South Africa, August 26, 1999
I didn't like this book.
Its theories and analyses seem very unconvincing. But maybe that is because I am black, of lower intelligence and thus can't ever be expected to understand such piercing scientific fact. So all I can hope is that along the fateful road of neo-Darwinism that is set extinguish people like me, someone in this world will intervene. Perhaps my artistic abilities will be of value to evolution; perhaps my sagacity or physical agility. Or how about my leadership qualities? But alas, these too may be the exclusive domain of those who sit atop the bell curve, sounding the death knell for people like me. So if you are reading this, I am very sorry for wasting your time with my low level thought processes.

Click here to order this book

Bookstore - Psychiatry & Psychology

SNTP Genetics & Eugenics Main Page

Main Psychiatry Page

Pursuing Truth in all subjects...

©Gene Zimmer 1999 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED