A Question of Intelligence: The IQ Debate in America

A look at the inequality in human intelligence addresses the sensitive issue of ethnic and national differences in IQ, outlining correlations between IQ levels and economic achievements, arguing for the continuation of the IQ tests many consider biased. 20,000 first printing.

Fortune magazine columnist Seligman here targets the prevailing wisdom that IQ tests are culturally biased, that environment is more significant than genetics. His provocative argument, based on academic literature and interviews with scholars, is convincing: IQ tests do indeed measure mental abilities, those abilities are in substantial measure heritable and testing is worthwhile for it generates data of enormous social value and explanatory power. Seligman debunks media coverage of Chicago teacher Marva Collins and others who claim to dramatically raise the IQs of disadvantaged children in the classroom. But the book rambles. He devotes too much space to the history of IQ testing and the background of psychologist Arthur Jensen and his controversial theory that intelligence is determined largely by genes, rather than fully exploring, for example, why Asians and Jews score higher on IQ tests. Seligman maintains that environmental effects explain only part of the gap in IQ test scores between American blacks and whites and stresses that many scholars believe that the differences are attributable to genetics. The book concludes with an attack on affirmative action and a proposal that people should be treated as individuals. Seligman is to be credited with raising issues in a debate that many shy away from as too heated.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Seligman, a former senior staff editor of Time Inc. Publications and a columnist for Fortune , utilizes professional opinion studies, and statistical concepts to endorse intelligence quotients. He discusses "practical intelligence" and academic performance, explains the nature-nurture hypothesis (heritability vs. environment), and explores the latter's significance in twin studies, black-white tests, and Jewish-Japanese comparisons. For more objectivity, Raymond E. Fancher's The Intelligence Men: Makers of the IQ Controversy ( LJ 6/15/85) encompasses the scientific inquiry from the contributors and creators of IQ and is loaded with direct quotes. This 85-year-old dispute, Seligman says, has developed because Americans want to believe in equality, but IQ only verifies difference. His scholarly yet readable update to the argument is recommended for large education collections. (Bibliography, notes, and index not seen.)-- Ina M. Wise, Daley Community Coll. Lib., Chicago
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.