Theo Todman's Book Collection (Book-Paper Abstracts)

BOOK ABSTRACT:

Inside Cover Blurb

1. Is intelligence determined by nature‘s genetic blueprints or by environment’s nurturing? Few debates have so polarized the scientific and lay communities over the past century as the IQ controversy. In this brilliant and highly readable volume, psychologist Raymond E. Fancher, author of books on Sigmund Freud and on the lives and ideas of the great psychologists, turns a historical eye toward the scientists who have played, and continue to play, leading roles in the intelligence debate. It is a rich and exciting narrative of the lives and ideas of such intellects as John Stuart Mill, Francis Galton, Alfred Binet, and Arthur Jensen, among others, who have shaped the concept of intelligence over the past two hundred years.
2. Particularly interesting is the full account of the astounding discovery that Sir Cyril Burt, one of England's most eminent scientists, faked the data₁ for his studies on the genetics of intelligence. Few realize that the impetus for this unmasking originated with a small group of undergraduate protesters at a prestigious American university.
3. This book illuminates a controversy that will not go away, one whose impact continues to be felt in many public educational systems