Summary
[Stephen Murdoch] traces the roots of modern intelligence testing and the interest in quantifying intelligence to Francis Galton, a now distant figure, and cousin of Charles Darwin.
By the time the 20th century rolled around, the advent of eugenics was poised to devastate Europe. Eugenics wore the benign cloak of intelligence testing, the first of which had been developed in France to test deficiency rather than aptitude (used to classify degrees of mental retardation), and then adopted by the U.S. military during the First World War to match men to military detail on the basis of intelligence.Testers, following in Galton's footsteps in their quest to quantify, Murdoch argues, were not neutral. Reaching a critical mass in the interwar years, intelligence testing dovetailed with the drive of modern states towards efficiency.See the full content of this document
Extract
Iq Testing Gets Failing Grade
IQ
A Smart History of a Failed IdeaBy Stephen MurdochWiley, 269 pages, $30Reviewed by Ria JulienIN the 19th century, phrenologists thought character could be gauged by the size of the head. Today, with the ...See the full content of this document
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