Amazon.com: Measured Lies: The Bell Curve Examined: 9780312172282: Gresson, Aaron, Kincheloe, Joe L., Steinberg, Shirley R.: Books (original) (raw)
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Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2010
The Bell Curve rationale is the basis to justify many decisions in the social fields. Therefore, it is critical to examine what this reasoning is being built upon. This book is a step in this respect.
3 people found this helpful
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2001
When I read the Bell Curve in 1994 and again this year, I found it convincing, though I don't consider myself a racist. I was looking forward to hearing the "other side" of the debate, and this book provided one of the first opportunities. But I was truly dissapointed.
I did start out biased in that I didn't expect to be convinced. But I expected the contributing writers (or at least some of them) to provide some scientific evidence behind their claims. Yet precious little is there.
Don't get me wrong, it is well written, eliquent, and entertaining, it just doesn't hold up to scrutiny. For one thing, so many of the writers clearly didn't even read the Bell Curve. They use ideology instead of science in a desperately vain attempt to make their point.
That point?
Most could guess before reading that all contributing writers feel that it is in fact environment and socioeconomic factors are the main (or only) things that contribute to who we become. They do not give an inch on their traditionally liberal views that all or nearly all the differences in behavior in blacks, whites, and other races are the result of society. Genes play no role in their world.
We must open our eyes. The Bell Curve is not correct on everything. But the genie is out of the bottle. There is just too much evidence in so many scientific fields to support the main thesis of the Bell Curve.
75 people found this helpful
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2017
The title is actually a description of the book's assertions about its subject, specifically the first sentence if the description😧
2 people found this helpful
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2007
This book is a collection of essays written by authors who feel that intelligence is not correctly measured by IQ tests.This is especially evident when specific racial and ethnic minority groups are judged to have IQ's that are significantly lower than those of the white population.
Unfortunately,practically all of the authors miss a golden opportunity to question the basic data upon which the IQ tests are constructed and composed of- objective,fill in the circle,multiple choice pattern recognition tests.The basic question that should be emphasized is that no one has established the relevance,or connection of, multiple choice tests to intelligence.Multiple choice tests measure memorization,recall,and the mastery of the "tricks of the trade " taught by tutors to those individuals who can pay to have themselves and/or their children tutored.
Most of the authors needed to reemphasize the crucial points made by S J Gould in his The Mismeasure of Man ,concerning the resort to the use of two major fallacies underlying the arguments of those who believe that intelligence is a simple entity that can be exactly and precisely measured by a single unique number -the reification and quantitative fallacies.I would recommend that a potential book buyer purchase the book by Gould first.
4 people found this helpful
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2008
(Helpful? Not? Please vote, so I know someone is reading these :^) :: When the by-line for this book screamed at me, "...the first thoughtful and reasoned reading of The Bell Curve,..." my jaw dropped. I thought *I* had performed the first thoughtful and well-reasoned reading! Admittedly, The Bell Curve was a pretty drudgerous read, and it was fairly unapologetic about its no-frills approach. However, I've scarcely seen regression analysis explained any better for a layperson's understanding (Levitt's "Freakonomics" is a close contender, FYI), nor elaborated much better in harder texts. As for this "Measured Lies" fiasco:
I think prior reviewers have mentioned subsequent studies, even better than the original Bell Curve fodder, have shown and supported high correlation between heredity and IQ. They have also shown that much of heredity *can* be overcome through nurturing environment, and good education, given generally-assumed minimal aptitudes. In short, fairly dull people can be successful; brilliant people can be abject failures. For all the tripe/blather, we all understand these writers'/contributors' *need* to really hope against hope that the playing field is level. We all agree it would be wonderful if everyone had the same shot at all life has to offer. Sadly, it is not so; we all know it isn't so.
My parents and grandparents (all educators, elem & h.s.) all knew it too. They shepparded the kids through who struggled, as they had done with their parents years before. IQ is hereditary, and it's not politically incorrect to know this, especially with reams of corroborating data in support.
It was my dream to win Olympic gold medals! I have mostly my mother and father to blame for the dearth of Olympic Gold in my trophy case, b/c train as I might, I never broke 12 seconds in the 100M dash. I am short, and thin, and it just isn't fair that Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson (minus the steroids, of course, in Ben's case ... he was fast already anyway) naturally/genetically far exceed my abilities. It isn't fair. Measured Lies can no more wish away that reality, and the observable musculature of children and their parents than it can wish away the disparity between the mental horsepower we each have, also largely attributable to our parents. This book is scientifically weak, for which there is no excuse.
11 people found this helpful
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2009
What a load of absolute rubbish this book is. 200+ pages of words in attempt to deny that there be differences between racial groups. All the time, ignoring that they are attacking a book called the "Bell Curve". A bell curve distribution of any characteristic of any group means there is a spectrum of characteristics around the median. And that bell curves of different groups can and frequently do overlap. So, for example, if the median IQ of group A is higher than Group B, there can be members of group B with a higher IQ than members of Group A.
6 people found this helpful