Publisher Description

The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray has generated a firestorm of debate, confirming for some their secret belief in the innate inferiority of certain "races" or ethnic groups, angering many who view the book as an ill-concealed racist manifesto, and worrying untold others who fear the further racial polarization of American society. In The Bell Curve Wars , a group of our country's most distinguished intellectuals dismantles the alleged scientific foundations and criticizes the alarming public policy conclusions of this incendiary book. Anyone who has wondered about the connection among genes, race, and intelligence, all those anxious about racial antagonisms in our nation, those who question the efficacy of social welfare programs, all those troubled but unconvinced by Herrnstein and Murray's book, will want to read The Bell Curve Wars.

Notes

<AWARDS>Gustavus Myers Center Award for Outstanding Book on Human Rights</AWARDS>

Author Biography

Szwed is currently a professor of anthropology, African and African-American studies, music, and American studies at Yale University. He has written eight books on music and African-American culture and numerous articles and reviews on related subjects. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowship.

Table of Contents

* Introduction * Curveball Stephen Jay Gould * Cracking Open the IQ Box Howard Gardner * Race, IQ, and Scientism Richard Nisbett * The Sources of The Bell Curve Jeffrey Rosen and Charles Lane * Paradise Miscalculated Dante Ramos * Ethnicity and IQ Thomas Sowell * Back to the Future with The Bell Curve: Jim Crow, Slavery, and G Jacqueline Jones * Why Now? Henry Louis Gates Jr. * Caste, Crime, and Precocity Andrew Hacker * Has There Been a Cognitive Revolution in America? The Flawed Sociology of The Bell Curve Alan Wolfe * Hearts of Darkness John B. Judis * The It-Matters-Little Gambit Mickey Kaus * Scientific Truth and the American Dilemma Nathan Glazer * Equality: An Endangered Faith Martin Peretz * The Lowerers Leon Wieseltier * Developing the Rage to Win Hugh Pearson * Brave New Right Michael Lind * The Phony War Randall Kennedy * For Whom the Bell Curves Orlando Patterson

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Gustavus Myers Center Award for Outstanding Book on Human Rights

Kirkus US Review

A searing response to the pseudo-science on the connection between race and intelligence put forth in the best-selling The Bell Curve by Charles Murray and Richard J. Herrnstein (not reviewed). An impressive array of intellectuals address different aspects of the fiery debates that have taken place around the book. In an essay entitled "Curveball," Stephen Jay Gould argues that the social Darwinism theory that Herrnstein and Murray construct lacks scientific documentation and fails because of its shaky premises. Gould also points out that any theory about racial differences in IQ will always be fallacious until there is truly equal opportunity. Howard Gardner makes the point that the theories to which Herrnstein and Murray give so much weight have been used as a justification of racial oppression for hundreds of years. This leads to a powerful discussion that goes beyond the question of why The Bell Curve to the question, Why now? Gardner links the weak scientific argument of the book to its powerful policy analysis of programs such as welfare that are often cloaked in racial issues. Not all of the essays here come down against the book. Thomas Sowell calls it "a very sober, very thorough and very honest book." Sowell posits that too often discussions about race are so overtaken by passion that reason cannot enter the debate. He takes the science of The Bell Curve seriously and says the problem is not in the book itself, but in an environment that cannot sustain intellectual discussions about "touchy social issues." The theories of The Bell Curve are really so flat, so weak that they are easy to dispute. What the writers in this book do is take the ideas and flesh them out with history, science, and rigorous questioning. It seems that the true meat of thought is here and not in the book they are responding to. (Kirkus Reviews)

Long Description

The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray has generated a firestorm of debate, confirming for some their secret belief in the innate inferiority of certain "races" or ethnic groups, angering many who view the book as an ill-concealed racist manifesto, and worrying untold others who fear the further racial polarization of American society. In The Bell Curve Wars , a group of our country's most distinguished intellectuals dismantles the alleged scientific foundations and criticizes the alarming public policy conclusions of this incendiary book.Anyone who has wondered about the connection among genes, race, and intelligence, all those anxious about racial antagonisms in our nation, those who question the efficacy of social welfare programs, all those troubled but unconvinced by Herrnstein and Murray's book, will want to read The Bell Curve Wars.

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