The Bell Curve. Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life

CONTROVERSIAL STUDY BY PSYCHOLOGIST AND SOCIAL SCIENTIST PROPOSES THAT CORRELATION OF SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS WITH INTELLIGENCE JUSTIFIES EUGENIC MEASURES. 1/2 inches tall hardcover, black paper covered boards, gray cloth spine with gilt title, xxvi, 845 pp, illustrations; near fine in very good dust jacket. Cited by Engs in The Eugenics Movement (2005): Written by Harvard psychologist RICHARD J. HERRNSTEIN (1930-1994) and social scientist CHARLES MURRAY (b. 1943), The Bell Curve proposes that a strong correlation exists between intelligence and socioeconomic achievement, as well as between intelligence and 'races'. The authors project that an expanding underclass of less intelligent individuals wdth high birth rates will generate serious social and economic problems in growing technological societies. The title of this 845-page book refers to the normal distribution of characteristics such as height that are distributed evenly on either side of an average value to form a bell-like curve. Aimed at the educated middle class, the book is divided into four parts: The Emergence of a Cognitive Elite, Cognitive Classes and Social Behavior, The National Context, and Living Together. The work contains twenty-two chapters including Cognitive Class and Education, 1900-1990, Welfare Dependency, Crime, Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability, The Demography of Intelligence, The Leveling of American Education, and The Way We Are Headed. Herrnstein and Murray present statistical analyses, graphs, and references to numerous studies both inside and outside the United States to support their premise that intelligence affects socioeconomic class structure. They argue that due to the increasingly technical nature of society, inherited intelligence is necessary for success and achievement. Because only the intelligent achieve social success, a cognitive elite is being produced at the top stratum and a poor underclass at the bottom. The authors contend that social problems in the United States including crime, poverty, public welfare, school failure, unemployment, and urban and rural violence are related to low intelligence. They advance the premise that innate intellectual differences exist between ethnic groups and races that cannot be accounted for by culturally or racially biased intelligence or IQ tests and that differences in mental ability account for inequalities in socioeconomic status among different groups. Because people with low intelligence have more children, and immigration policy allows immigrants with low intelligence to enter the United States, the authors claim, a growing underclass will lead to increased class conflicts and serious social and political problems. This will lead to increased class conflicts and serious social and political problems. To remedy the situation and to increase the IQ of the nation, they recommend positive eugenics measures, such as encouraging smarter women to have higher birth rates than duller women. They also suggest negative eugenics policies, such as ending welfare programs to discourage high birth rates among the less intelligent, and barring low-intelligent immigrants from entering the country. The Bell Curve reflects the new eugenics ideology, and it provoked considerable controversy, particularly in the United States, but it was highly popular. Numerous articles and books were published to refute its thesis. Herrnstein died a few weeks before its publication.

Product Info

Publisher: The Free Press

Year: 1994

Type: Used

Binding: Softcover

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Country: United States