Ocean State Libraries

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. Yet the idea of 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. In this edition, Stephen Jay Gould has written a substantial new introduction...

"Measurement of intelligence has resulted in individuals being judged on the basis of IQ results rather than on merit or personal achievement. Controversy abounds over America's cultural infatuation with IQ, which has long served to perpetuate social inequalities and place limits on an individual's aspirations. Most of us assume that people in every period and in every region of the world have understood and valued intelligence in the same way we...