The Mismeasure of Man Audiobook

" I loved Stephen Jay Gould's calm way of eviscerating prejudiced, fraked up belief systems. An essential book if you have trouble getting the idea that you can't judge intelligence by looking at anything but intelligence. "

" Maybe three and a half stars. A noble little book, offering not just a reminder that we should be suspicious of the political uses of scientific research (especially as regards measures of "intelligence," but also that neither good intentions or scientific brilliance are infallible guards against political bias. The first two-thirds, which presents an overview of studies of cranial capacity, are convincing enough that I'll take Gould's word about the conclusions in the final chapter, which debunks the misuse of statistical models in more detail than my poor attenuated left brain could keep up with. "

" Very interesting, and argumentatively sound. But without much of the humor of Gould's other works and tends toward rambling and repetition. "

" Makes you think about all the tags we create...even using scientific data. "

" An exemplary history of bad 'science' (in this case, 19th and 20th century white racism) "

" I typically like Stephen Jay Gould's writing, but this piece was far too long and dry for my taste. I would have loved this if it had been a longer essay in one of his collections, condensed down to its richest and most interesting parts. "

" Synopsis: The Bell Curve = Discriminatory Bullshit. It's true that this book is super annoying to read. The sentence structure doesn't flow nicely and I think he likes to hear himself write. But the research is impressive. "

" As has been demonstrated elsewhere, there are enough flaws in this book that it cannot be recommended. "

" A bit dated but still a great read! "

" An important book, especially if you live anywhere where children are assessed at 11 (as I do) and the assumption is made that a single number/letter is all there is to say about their intelligence. Really made me think about how subjective and politically-motivated science often is. "

" Intellectually fraudulent, utterly ignorant of modern intelligence research, politically biased. "

" It's good. It's too polemical to get the full breadth of Gould's work I think, I would reccommend some of his collections for that. I think his method is why I (sort-of) made it through College. "

" Excellent overview of the history of science used to justify bad theories and practices concerning race. Gould debunks the Bell Curve and the idea that IQ is some kind of valid number that measures intelligence precisely. As always, another excellent book by the late Stephen Jay Gould. "

" I am very interested in the study of Eugenics and Social Darwinism but some of the images in this book are down right creepy (as they are meant to be). "

" This is an absolute must read for anyone interested in the heritability of IQ and/or IQ testing movement. "

" Not wholly impressed, but still convincing. "

" This book is a definitive source of facts and information behind intelligence, science, African Americans, and the bending of analysis for prejudicial reasons. Question the IQ test!! "

" oooh some really heady stuff... but good. Gould does an excellent job in recognizing early scientific thought as being legit for its time, and he details the faults in the biological racisms throughout the history of science. I concentrated on more hereditarian theories and their rebuttals. "

" The futility of poly-misanthropes to compare the volume of their skull with the reader's in an attempt to prove intellectual superiority. Pft! "

" How is he SO GOOD at explaining things? "

" It was an amazing study and really hard to believe that all those scientists were persons and that people really heard them and followed their papers. I foccused a lot on chapter 4 and it was pretty damn stunning. "

" Very interesting, and argumentatively sound. But without much of the humor of Gould's other works and tends toward rambling and repetition. "

" A must read for anyone involved with assessment and measurement in the social sciences. "

" Read this in college - fabulous book by an outright genius. "

" Not wholly impressed, but still convincing. "

" Had to read this for my physical anthropology course. The material is well researched and presented very well, but it is a really hard read. Thank god I had an entire semester to read this book. "

" Gould's response to " The Bell Curve." succinctly presents a history of how people have developed theories of intelligence based on prejudice, and develop tests that confirm them. Fantastic read. "