The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0029146739 ISBN 13: 9780029146736

Publisher: Free Press, 1994

Postulating that a "cognitive elite" are at the top of a new class structure in America, and that low intelligence levels are at the root of many social problems, the authors challenge the fundamental American belief that everyone is created equal. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. Tour.

From the Publisher:

The ability to manipulate information has become the single most important element of success. High intelligence is an increasingly precious raw material. But despite decades of fashionable denial, the overriding and insistent truth about intellectual ability is that it is endowed unequally. In this audio presentation of The Bell Curve, author Charles Murray explores the ways that low intelligence, independent of social, economic, or ethnic background, lies at the root of many of our social problems. He also discusses another taboo subject: that intelligence levels differ among ethnic groups. According to the authors, only by facing up to these differences can we accurately assess the nation's problems and make realistic plans to address them. However, if we accept that there are intelligence differences among groups, we must learn to avoid prejudicial assumptions about any individual of a given group whose intelligence level may be anywhere under the bell curve.

About the Author:

Richard J. Herrnstein held the Edger Pierce Chair in Psychology at Harvard University until his death in 1994.