Sir Francis Galton

Lynn argues that the condemnation of eugenics in the second half of the 20th century went too far and that eugenics needs reassessment. The eugenic objectives of eliminating genetic diseases, increasing intelligence, and reducing personality disorders remain desirable and are achievable by human biotechnology. In the 21st century, he maintains, human biotechnology is likely to progress spontaneously in democratic societies and to be used by authoritarian states to increase their economic, scientific, and military power.

In this path-breaking work, Dean Keith Simonton examines a range of important personalities and events that have influenced the course of history. He discusses how people who go down in history might be different from the rest of us, and explores which personality traits predispose certain people to become world leaders, movie stars, scientific geniuses, and star athletes. In exploring the psychology of greatness, this fascinating work also sheds light on the characteristics that any of us may share with history-making people.

Smart Jews addresses one of the most controversial theories of our day: the alleged connection between race (or ethnicity), intelligence, and virtue. Sander L. Gilman shows that such theories have a long, disturbing history. He examines a wide range of texts - scientific treatises, novels, films, philosophical works, and operas - that assert the greater intelligence (and, often, lesser virtue) of Jews. The book opens with a discussion of concepts that relate intelligence and race (particularly those that figure in the controversial bestseller The Bell Curve); it then describes "scientific" theories of Jewish superior intelligence that were developed in the ninteenth and early twentieth centuries. Gilman explores the reactions to those theories by Jewish scientists and intellectuals of that era, including Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The conclusion turns to how such ideas figure in modern novels and films, from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon to Stephen Spielberg's Schindler's List and Robert Redford's Quiz Show. Gilman demonstrates how stereotypes can permeate society, finding expression in everything from scientific work to popular culture. And he shows how the seemingly flattering attribution of superior intelligence has served to isolate Jews and to cast upon them the imputation of lesser virtue.

The g factor--general mental ability--is the major construct for understanding both individual differences and the average differences between groups (race and sex) in educational and occupational attainment. It is also germane to social issues of national importance. Jensen fully and clearly explains the psychometric, statistical, genetic, and physiological basis of g, as well as the major theoretical challenges to the concept. For decades a key construct in differential psychology, the g factor's significance for the brain sciences as well as for education, sociology, anthropology, evolutionary psychology, economics, and public policy is clearly evident in this, the most comprehensive treatment of g available.