Charles Murray

Harvard in the Act

In September of 1971, Atlantic magazine published an article by Harvard psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein. Avoiding the race and IQ issue, the author argued instead that IQ and social standing were closely linked in American society. The lead, presented in bold type just under the title and the author’s name, contained the following propositions, followed by two check boxes marked true and false: “1. If differences in mental abilities are inherited, and 2. If success requires those abilities, and 3. If earnings and prestige depend upon success, 4. Then social standing will be based to some extent on inherited differences among people.”

The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life@@@Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life Perspective@@@The Bell Curve Debate: History, Documents, Opinions@@@The Bell Curve Wars: Race, Intelligence, and the Future of America

* Introduction * Curveball Stephen Jay Gould * Cracking Open the IQ Box Howard Gardner * Race, IQ, and Scientism Richard Nisbett * The Sources of The Bell Curve Jeffrey Rosen and Charles Lane * Paradise Miscalculated Dante Ramos * Ethnicity and IQ Thomas Sowell * Back to the Future with The Bell Curve: Jim Crow, Slavery, and G Jacqueline Jones * Why Now? Henry Louis Gates Jr. * Caste, Crime, and Precocity Andrew Hacker * Has There Been a Cognitive Revolution in America? The Flawed Sociology of The Bell Curve Alan Wolfe * Hearts of Darkness John B. Judis * The It-Matters-Little Gambit Mickey Kaus * Scientific Truth and the American Dilemma Nathan Glazer * Equality: An Endangered Faith Martin Peretz * The Lowerers Leon Wieseltier * Developing the Rage to Win Hugh Pearson * Brave New Right Michael Lind * The Phony War Randall Kennedy * For Whom the Bell Curves Orlando Patterson

Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980.

* Prologue A Generous Revolution * The Kennedy Transition * The System Is to Blame * Implementing the Elite Wisdom Being Poor, Being Black: 19501980 * Poverty * Employment * Wages and Occupations * Education * Crime * The Family * The View from 1966 Interpreting The Data * The Scoial Scientists and the Great Experiment * Incentives to Fail I: Maximizing Short-Term Gains * The Destruction of Status Rewards Rethinking Social Policy * What do we want to Accomplish? * The Constraints on Helping * Choosing a Future