This is an excellent book for the understanding of intelligence and its issues. The author provides a good overview on the many aspects on intelligence, IQ tests and the debates around these issues.

In my opinion, the best part of this book is chapters 7 and 8. Chapter talks about "Nature and Nurture." Nature is very much stronger a factor on intelligence than environment (or nurture). Chapter 8 talks about identical twins separated at birth and raised in very different environments, and after dozens of years reunited. Psychologists discovered that these twins have very similar IQs, personality, and characters. This proves that intelligence and personality are 'encoded' in our genes.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in understanding not only about IQ and its debates, but also about why many social engineering prgrams failed.

In my view, intelligence is given by God. Those of us who have more should not be proud, because we did not sweat to get it. Those of us who have less should not feel ashamed. We all need to work hard throughout our lives and respect one another. All are precious in the eyes of God.

It is too bad that this book is out of print, but many low-value books are popular. I recommend this book to anyone who is open-minded.

Part journalism and part personal essay, this fine little book is readable and, given the strong stand it takes, surprisingly mild. It makes an excellent choice for anyone who wants a quick summary of the issues, even if the reader disagrees. Of special interest to me were the revelations about the limitations of the case against Cyril Burt and the NY Times and other media's non-journalistic failure to review the books that have shown those limitations. The personal material on Jensen was enjoyable. Again, from the media he would seem to be a monster, not a liberal leaning nice guy. And the fact that he had to have special police protection for years is astonishing. The paperback was published in 1994 and it is now 1998. Perhaps the dogma against IQ measurement is weakening, for it seems to me that more and more credibility is being given to the fact that we are after all biological organisms. How long will it be until all of Seligman's points (which are the same as the overwhelming majority of experts on intelligence according to research by Snyderman) are accepted by the general culture?

While I don't agree with Seligman on everything, this is far and away the best introduction for the general reader to the enormous literature of the IQ controversy. It's superbly readable, and, amazingly enough in this age of bloated books, short.

Steve Sailer

This book adds significantly to the far too small literature attempting to explain today's worldwide epidemic of genocide and ethnic violence. My generation believed we had ended all that by defeating the Nazis. Not so; there have been a couple of dozen major genocides since, and countless minor massacres. The book at hand is a collection of chapters by psychologists (and a few other social scientists). Most of the explanatory material is taken from the area of psychology best developed in this regard: the research on categorization, stereotyping, and stigmatizing. Among the best chapters is one by Erwin Staub, who has done some of the very finest research on genocide.
An important part of this book is a series of studies of situations that did NOT turn into genocide, in spite of having the potential to do so: South Africa, the southern US.... Now ironic is the inclusion of Israel; this book was written before the recent horrors. However, the chapter is valuable; it attributes the success of Israel to precisely those features that Sharon abolished. Sure enough--Sharon abolished them, and ethnic violence blew up...
The book under review emphasizes solutions. Notable among these is the absolute, desperate need for the world community of nations to intervene! ...
In any case, anyone concerned with genocide and ethnic war should read this book. It is thought-provoking and important.