Product Description

How could IQ testing, which has only ever been a rough guide to ability, through the seductive power of a single, all-explaining number, have come to be seen as an objective and infallible measure of intelligence, even of human merit? In the first popular history of the intelligence test, Stephen Murdoch reveals how universal education, mass immigration into the US, and the demands of mobilisation in WWI, created the need to rank populations by intelligence. IQ tests were used to decide whether people could settle in a new country, whether they could reproduce, even whether they lived or died, but while they do have some predictive power, IQ tests don't explain people's capacity to think and understand the world around them. Could the concept of reshaping society based on exam results alone, ever be a good idea?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150882 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'Well-informed ... undoubtedly powerful' - John Carey, The Sunday Times. 'A page-turner' - The Independent. 'The book's strength lies in its detailed analysis and intriguing historical detail' - Daily Mail. 'A highly readable account' - The Morning Star. 'Compelling from its first pages ... first-rate' - Russell Martin, author of 'Out of Silence'. 'Lucid and engaging' - Dr Paul Lombardo, author of 'Three Generations, No Imbeciles'. 'An up-to-date, reader-friendly account of the continuing saga of the mismeasure of women and men' - Dr Howard Gardner, Harvard University. --Various

The Independent, July 2007
`Perhaps uniquely among books about IQ, this one is a page-turner'

Guardian
`Murdoch's zestily polemical history recounts [IQ tests'] explicit beginnings in the eugenics movement and the horrific uses to which they were then put'

Customer Reviews

Engaging read on a little covered topic
There aren't many books on assessment that you could describe as "engaging". But this is one. The writing style is modern (so modern that commas have been liberally stripped out), casual and entertaining.

The book is well researched, if a little anecdotal, and there is some fascinating historical detail, such as eugenics being responsible for the deaths of almost 400,000 Germans by 1945.

If I have one criticism it is that the author does not hide his prejudices. He doesn't like IQ tests (or any other tests for that matter) and it shows. But he doesn't really offer any viable alternatives, which might explain why IQ tests (or derivatives) have survived for 100 years.

His bias doesn't ruin the book. If you at all interested in intelligence testing, education or the history of assessment then you will enjoy this short, easy-to-read book. Highly recommended.