The Mismeasure of Man

By: Stephen Jay Gould

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

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 telling how and why he wrote the book and tracing the subsequent history of the controversy on innateness right through The Bell Curve. Further, he has added five essays on questions of The Bell Curve in particular and on race, racism, and biological determinism in general. These additions strengthen the book's claim to be, as Leo J. Kamin of Princeton University has said, "a major contribution toward deflating pseudo-biological 'explanations' of our present social woes."

©1981 Stephen Jay Gould, Renewed 1996 by Stephen Jay Gould (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A rare book---at once of great importance and wonderful to read." ( Saturday Review)

a must for everyone in academic research

it was amazing to have historical input of the methods, data, biases and quotes from great horrible and good influencers on eugenic matter. the subject is not dead, so this book is a must.
it has also a second layer of training on how to do responsible science.

Long winded

I really appreciate this book and everything should has to say. Especially in light of today’s issues. However this could have been summed up in the first and last chapters. Would recommend the cliff notes.

A capable tour de force

Magisterial no, Stephen Jay Gould is too conversational for that and too willing to find the humor and humanity in what is his ethical stance , which shines a clear crisp light on a mostly American history of the misuse of intelligence tests for fairly eugenic purposes by the roaring twenties. It is a baseline of the key historical figures and theories used to as the title says mis measure man, for active or even benign is that possible racial and heredity outcomes based on race theories. I only wish the promise of a direct address of Bell Curve in the introduction was delivered to the same degree as his critiques, exposés, and take downs of earlier researchers. He does an admirable ethical job by the inclusion of two essays and some related works but only an adequate job by a scientific critique of the exact data sets and methodology followed as he did for prior research, and yet it’s still SJG and his writing is good , it flows , it is thoroughly enjoyable and educational no matter my critique.

Timely refutation of wrong views on race

Only criticism is that the original book very frequently quotes historical material at length. If one listens on and off, sometimes you may hear something a bit off the wall when you come back. You hope it’s not Gould’s words, and it isn’t: it’s the material Gould is quoting. The producers could have found some technological way to make these quotes sound differently, or the narrator could have given slightly different vocal cues.

Simply the best book I have ever read

An avid reader all my life and at 61 to have happened upon this masterpiece that absolutely should be made required reading for undergrads worldwide…..but then again, The Mismeasure challenges the very foundation that every “esteemed” professor measures his/her degree on—-imagine the irony.
Darwin: To paraphrase, The misery of our poor having nothing to do with their innate inferiority but as a result of our institutions, great are our sins.

Robert Bryan

A mixed bag

My opinion of them book shifted during the time I listened. I thought the book started strong, then bogged down into a litany of crazy racist things people used to say and then support with wonky science. I actually felt I had to shut the book off a few times because I was listening in my studio where people could conceviably hear the audio and assume I was listening to skinhead propaganda.
I don't think the concepts of the book were particularly surprising and the author didn't say anything new. It was interesting to hear how blinded or biased real scientists could become when researching a topic of personal significance. The first half of the book, for this reason, was, overall, decent.

The second half of the book started with discussion of factor analysis. There are visual aids one can access online to help make this section accessible, but I was not in a position to access them during my listening. For this reason, or my inattention, or my apathy, I didn't not follow the factor analysis discussion and it seemed to drag on.

At the end of the original book, the author has added an epilogue and a couple essays. The essays, though sometimes repetitive of topics in the main text, we're more interesting to me and helped illuminate some of the fuzzier passages from earlier. I especially appreciated the discussions that advocated nuance in looking for answers that weren't wholly biological or wholly environmental, neither racist nor utopian. (I obviously have explained this less well than the author.)

The biggest surprise for me was the author's comparison of the ideas from "The Bell Curve" to crazy racist things said by earlier scientists and thinkers. I haven't read the bell curve and am too young to remember the hype at the time. I would like to believe that people today don't actually believe in real difference between "races", but as an adult it is hard to be blind to the crazy racist things people STILL believe.

Excellent Repudiation

The author does an excellent job of deconstructing IQ tests and proves their irrelevance for comparing broad racial groups while also acknowledging their utility for individual cases. While there may be a "bell curve" for many measurements of human anatomy, cultural and educational differences make this fraught for any measure of "g".

Excellent and eye opening

Any additional comments?

A story of history that makes you shake your head in disbelief but also an excellent story of cognitive bias and its influence on science. A story that can still occur today.

a book you must struggle through

This is a great book on the history of both IQ and racism in academia.It is also interesting to see how the need to prove that white people are superior biologically is exactly what allowed the west to become more liberal as the ideas kept disproving themselves.
the only problem I had with this book is it is written like an academic paper rather than a book. you have to a lot of repetition of ideas and way to indepth descriptions.
Later in the book when he went into factor analysis I felt so lost because I didn't have the images infront of me, or knowledge to understand how they work. this lead to me struggling to understand what exactly he means when he debunks logical fallacies.

Tip the narrator is so slow I found 1.6x speed the only way I could listen.
don't listen around outher people he keeps quoting the old authors and if they don't here the whole chapter people would just think you are listening to racist propaganda which is the opposite of what this book is.

Totally changed my view of Darwin

Many thanks for such an amazing book. Glad that I finally find time to read it.