This open access book examines the web of scientific, cultural, and political interests that influenced the writing of The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life and the contemporary currents that keep this controversial book in discussion. Published in 1994, The Bell Curve remains one of the most controversial social science books ever published due to its claim for genetic differences in intelligence among races which, while it repulsed many, resonated in some audiences and remains a touchstone in the social sciences today. Professor Tucker opens with an analysis of the role of race in The Bell Curve that provides a strong counter to the author’s claims that race played a minor role in the book or that it was agnostic to the question of the role of biology in causing race differences in education, intelligence, and socioeconomic success. He moves on to consider its emphasis on meritocracy, situating it within the history of Herrnstein’s own intellectual trajectory, as well as the connections to eugenics and psychology in the early 20th century. In the remaining chapters Professor Tucker examines The Bell Curve as part of an ongoing political project including a discussion of the way in which the attitudes fostered by the book can be seen to have played a role in the 2016 US election. It argues that by focusing attention exclusively on individual differences in cognitive ability as the source of inequality, it diverts attention from the more important structural variables that account for differences in people’s economic outcomes. This compelling analysis will appeal in particular 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.

The Pioneer Fund, established in 1937 by Wickliffe Preston Draper, is one of the most controversial nonprofit organizations in the United States. Long suspected of misusing social science to fuel the politics of oppression, the fund has specialized in supporting research that seeks to prove the genetic and intellectual inferiority of blacks while denying its ties to any political agenda. This powerful and provocative volume proves that the Pioneer Fund has indeed been the primary source for scientific racism. Revealing a lengthy history of concerted and clandestine activities and interests, "The Funding of Scientific Racism" examines for the first time archival correspondence that incriminates the fund's major players, including Draper, recently deceased president Harry F. Weyher, and others.
Divulging evidence of the Pioneer Fund's political motivations, William H. Tucker links Draper to a Klansman's crusade to repatriate blacks in the 1930s. Subsequent directors and grantees are implicated in their support of campaigns organized in the 1960s to reverse the "Brown" decision, prevent passage of the Civil Rights Act, and implement a system of racially segregated private schools.
Tucker shows that these and other projects have been officially sponsored by the Pioneer Fund or surreptitiously supervised by its directors. This evidence demonstrates that any results of genuine, scientific value produced with the fund's support have been a salutary, if incidental, consequence of its actual purpose: to provide ammunition for what has essentially been a lobbying campaign to prevent the full participation of blacks in society and the polity.