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Palgrave Macmillan

'The Bell Curve' in Perspective

Race, Meritocracy, Inequality and Politics

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  • Open Access
  • © 2024

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Overview

Authors:
  1. William H. Tucker

    1. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Camden, USA

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  • This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access
  • Examines the arguments and legacy of controversial social science book ‘The Bell Curve’
  • Analyses Herrnstein’s concept of the “meritocracy” in relation to increases in economic inequality

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Table of contents (4 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. The Bell Curve, Then and Now

    • William H. Tucker
    Pages 1-19Open Access
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  3. Meritocracy: Places, Everyone!

    • William H. Tucker
    Pages 21-80Open Access
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  4. Politics and Intelligence: Running Against the Cognitive Elite

    • William H. Tucker
    Pages 81-99Open Access
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  5. Conclusion: Addressing Inequality

    • William H. Tucker
    Pages 101-109Open Access
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  6. Back Matter

    Pages 111-124
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About this book

This open access book examines the implications of The Bell Curve for the social, economic, and political developments of the early 21st century. Following a review of the reception of The Bell Curve and its place in the campaign to end affirmative action, Professor Tucker analyses Herrnstein’s concept of the “meritocracy” in relation to earlier 20th century eugenics and the dramatic increase in economic inequality over the past 30 years. Tucker demonstrates how, contrary to The Bell Curve’s predictions, the reallocation of these huge sums was neither rational nor beneficial for society. The book moves on to situate The Bell Curve within contemporary politics and shows how it can be seen to have played a role in the 2016 US election. This compelling analysis will appeal to scholars and those with an interest in the history of scientific racism, the history of psychology and the sociology of knowledge and science.

This is an open access book.

Reviews

“Within the vast literature around race/class and IQ this book stands out as an original contribution. Rather than, once again, rehearsing that the science is flawed, Tucker shows the political result of the "meritocracy" envisioned by Murray and other hereditarian psychologists. Tucker makes an empirical argument about the vast economic inequality that Murray and others say is inevitable and natural but is, in reality, the result of political and social choices. The topic is both old and exceptionally timely. This book is a final and fitting entry for this exceptional scholar and should be read by historians, psychologists, political scientists, sociologists, and economists.” (John P. Jackson Jr., Adjunct Professor of History at Michigan State University, USA, and co-author of Darwinism, Democracy and Race.)

"Tucker provided an invaluable body of careful scholarship that is greatly admired by those who study the history of scientific racism. This brief, new work, Race, Meritocracy, Inequality, and Politics: The Bell Curve in Perspective, was completed but unpublished when Tucker died in 2022. Here he examines the implications of The Bell Curve for the social, economic, and political developments of the early 21st century. Following a review of the reception of The Bell Curve and its place in the campaign to end affirmative action, Tucker carefully examines Herrnstein’s concept of the “meritocracy” in relation to earlier 20th century eugenics and the dramatic increase in economic inequality over the past 30 years. By examining the extreme rise in incomes in the fields of finance, corporate management, and law, Tucker shows how, contrary to The Bell Curve’s predictions, the reallocation of these huge sums was neither rational nor beneficial for society. The emergence of this “cognitive elite,” heralded by Herrnstein and Murray as key to social progress and stability, eventually contributed to the damaging anti-elitism backlash of Donald Trump’s populism. By demonstrating how The Bell Curve was clearly a social policy document that aimed to reshape society and eliminate social programs, Tucker provides an important new analysis of the interplay of science and politics, one informed by his lifelong commitment to social justice." (From the Foreword by Andrew S. Winston, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Guelph, Canada.)



Authors and Affiliations

  • Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Camden, USA

    William H. Tucker

About the author

​William H. Tucker (1940-2022) was Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University, Camden, USA. He was the author of numerous works on scientific racism including the books: The Cattell Controversy: Race, Science, and Ideology (2009), The Intelligence Controversy (2005), The Funding of Scientific Racism (2002), and The Science and Politics of Racial Research (1994) – for which he received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award that recognizes outstanding contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of cultural diversity.
Professor Tucker sadly died before publication could be completed. This work has been prepared for publication by his colleague Professor Daniel Hart with the permission of his widow Monica Drozd.



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