How have modern democracies squared their commitment to equality
with their fear that disparities in talent and intelligence might
be natural, persistent, and consequential? In this wide-ranging
account of American and French understandings of merit, talent, and
intelligence over the past two centuries, John Carson tells the
fascinating story of how two nations wrestled scientifically with
human inequalities and their social and political implications.
Surveying a broad array of political tracts, philosophical
treatises, scientific works, and journalistic writings, Carson
chronicles the gradual embrace of the IQ version of intelligence in
the United States, while in France, the birthplace of the modern
intelligence test, expert judgment was consistently prized above
such quantitative measures. He also reveals the crucial role that
determinations of, and contests over, merit have played in both
societies--they have helped to organize educational systems,
justify racial hierarchies, classify army recruits, and direct
individuals onto particular educational and career paths.
A contribution to both the history of science and intellectual
history, "The Measure of Merit" illuminates the shadow languages of
inequality that have haunted the American and French republics
since their inceptions.
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