IQ A Smart History of a Failed Idea

Advance praise for IQ A Smart History of a Failed Idea "An up-to-date, reader-friendly account of the continuing saga of the mismeasure of women and men." -Howard Gardner, author of Frames of Mind and Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons "The good news is that you won't be tested after you've read Stephen Murdoch's important new book. The better news is that IQ: A Smart History of a Failed Idea is compelling from its first pages, and by its conclusion, Murdoch has deftly demonstrated that in our zeal to quantify intelligence, we have needlessly scarred-if not destroyed-the lives of millions of people who did not need an IQ score to prove their worth in the world. IQ is first-rate narrative journalism, a book that I hope leads to necessary change." -Russell Martin, author of Beethoven's Hair, Picasso's War, and Out of Silence "With fast-paced storytelling, freelance journalist Murdoch traces now ubiquitous but still controversial attempts to measure intelligence to its origins in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. . . . Murdoch concludes that IQ testing provides neither a reliable nor a helpful tool in understanding people's behavior, nor can it predict their future success or failure. . . . A thoughtful overview and a welcome reminder of the dangers of relying on such standardized tests." -Publishers Weekly "Stephen Murdoch delivers a lucid and engaging chronicle of the ubiquitous and sometimes insidious use of IQ tests. This is a fresh look at a century-old and still controversial idea-that our human potential can be distilled down to a single test score. Murdoch's compelling account demands a reexamination of our mania for mental measurement." -Paul A. Lombardo, author of Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court & Buck v. Bell

Stephen Murdoch is a freelance journalist who has written for the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Newsweek, and many other publications.