The Mismeasure of Man
Ranked #4 in Biostatistics, Ranked #35 in History Of Science — see more rankings.
How smart are you? If that question doesn't spark a dozen more questions in your mind (like "What do you mean by 'smart,'" "How do I measure it" and "Who's asking?"), then The Mismeasure of Man, Stephen Jay Gould's masterful demolition of the IQ industry, should be required reading. Gould's brilliant, funny, engaging prose dissects the motivations behind those who would judge intelligence, and hence worth, by cranial size, convolutions, or score on extremely narrow tests. How did scientists decide that... more
Reviews and Recommendations
We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Mismeasure of Man from the world's leading experts.
Carol Dweck I was raised in the heyday of the IQ craze. My sixth grade teacher seated us around the room in IQ order and assigned all privileges on the basis of IQ. This book made me realise the effect it had on us and I saw that my work could play a role in bringing that era to a close. (Source)
Jerry Coyne He had this Marxist viewpoint towards biology which in the end made him almost reject natural selection. (Source)
Susan Gelman This is a classic book. It was published in 1981 and got a lot of attention when it came out. Gould just does this beautiful job of laying out the ‘biology as destiny’ idea – and then ripping it to shreds. (Source)
Rankings by Category
The Mismeasure of Man is ranked in the following categories:
- #36 in Anthropology
- #72 in Biology
- #38 in Developmental Psychology
- #49 in Evolution
- #59 in Evolutionary Psychology
- #47 in Philosophy Of Science
- #61 in Reasoning
- #99 in Science and Math
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