Tag: Race

Topics

Books

After L.A.—Causes, Root Causes, and Cures

– National Review, June 8, 1992.
Excerpt: The Rodney King verdict seemed as outrageous to me as it did to most Americans. But if it was outrageous, it was also laden with meaning. It opens a new and explosively dangerous… More

Upon This Rock: The Miracle of a Black Church

– City Journal, Winter 1993.
Excerpt: Upon This Rock (HarperCollins, $22.50) is a sourcebook for thinking about the black inner city. Not for understanding it, nor for solving its problems—this is more than one may… More

What Is Intelligence, and Who Has It?

– Malcolm W. Browne, New York Times, October 16, 1994.
Excerpt: In “The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life,” Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray write, “Mounting evidence indicates that… More

IQ: What’s the Fuss?

– Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, October 21, 1994.
Excerpt: “The Bell Curve” is a powerful, scrupulous, landmark study of the relationship between intelligence and social class, which is what the book is mainly about. It is… More

‘Bell Curve’ Ballistics

– Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, October 26, 1994.
Excerpt: “The Bell Curve” — the controversial book about the role of intelligence in society — is already a commercial success. Its publisher reports that it has now… More

A Conversation with Charles Murray

– Transcript, Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg, October 1994.
Excerpt: MR. WATTENBERG: Hello. I’m Ben Wattenberg. Welcome to a special two-part edition of Think Tank. You know, sometimes an argument within the scholarly community is so fierce… More

Genes, Race, and IQ—An Apologia

– The New Republic, October 31, 1994 (with Richard Herrnstein.)
Excerpt: As of 1994, then, we can say nothing for certain about the relative roles that genetics and environment play in the formation of the black-white difference in I.Q. All the evidence… More

Book Discussion on The Bell Curve

– Video, C-SPAN, November 8, 1994.
Summary: The co-author discussed his book, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. The book focuses on human intelligence and the way social problems are affected… More

Acting Smart

– James Q. Wilson, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Serious readers will ask four main questions about The Bell Curve. Is it true that intelligence explains so much behavior? How can IQ produce this effect? If it does, is there… More

Common Knowledge

– Michael Barone, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve is not an argument for racial discrimination. It is an argument against racial discrimination, against the one form of racial discrimination that is sanctioned by… More

Legacy of Racism

– Pat Shipman, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Human intelligence is an eel-like subject: slippery, difficult to grasp, and almost impossible to get straight. Charles Murray and the late Richard Herrnstein make a heroic attempt… More

Not Hopeless

– Ernest Van den Haag, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve shows that cognitive ability measured by IQ tests reliably predicts success—professional, academic, pecuniary—and that, on average, African-Americans have an IQ… More

Going Public

– Richard John Neuhaus, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The statistical data on which the book bases its conclusions about the cognitive differences between whites and blacks are impressive. And, since it would seem to be nearly… More

Living with Inequality

– Eugene D. Genovese, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve has much to offer. Its excellent analysis of the transformation of the American elite deserves high praise and a many-sided elaboration and critique, as do its… More

Trashing The Bell Curve

– Daniel Seligman, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: It is clear enough what The Bell Curve‘s liberal critics want. They want its ideas suppressed. They want the data to go away. They want the authors depicted as kooks and… More

Paroxysms of Denial

– Arthur R. Jensen, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Commenting not as an advocate but as an expert witness, I can say that The Bell Curve is correct in all its essential facts. The graphically presented analyses of fresh data (from… More

Is Intelligence Fixed?

– Nathan Glazer, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Herrnstein and Murray give some surprising data (surprising in the light of their argument that intelligence is fixed early and can’t be changed appreciably through… More

Meritocracy That Works

– Loren E. Lomasky, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: If the aim of social policy is to raise the abilities of the less well-off, without trying to achieve parity across races and classes, then speculation concerning the genetic basis… More

Methodological Fetishism

– Brigitte Berger, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: For all its wealth of data, skillful argumentation, and scope, The Bell Curve is a narrow and deeply flawed book. Murray and Herrnstein have fallen prey to a methodological… More

Dispirited

– Glenn C. Loury, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Reading Herrnstein and Murray’s treatise causes me once again to reflect on the limited utility in the management of human affairs of that academic endeavor generously termed… More

Mainstream Science on Intelligence

– Wall Street Journal, December 13, 1994.
Excerpt: Since the publication of “The Bell Curve,” many commentators have offered opinions about human intelligence that misstate current scientific evidence. Some conclusions… More

The Bell Curve

– Chester Finn, Commentary, January 1995.
Excerpt: As any author can attest who has brought forth a book and waited months for even the hometown paper—let alone the New York Times—to review it, the instant celebrity accorded… More

Ethnicity and IQ

– Thomas Sowell, The American Spectator, February 1995.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve is a very sober, very thorough, and very honest book—on a subject where sobriety, thoroughness, and honesty are only likely to provoke cries of outrage. Its… More

The Bell Curve and Its Critics by Charles Murray

– Charles Murray, Commentary, May 1995.
Excerpt: In November 1989, Richard Herrnstein and I agreed to collaborate on a book that, five years later, became The Bell Curve. It is a book about events at the two ends of the… More

Intelligence and the Social Scientist

– Leon R. Kass, The Public Interest, Summer 1995.
Excerpt: Someone who has not read the book, but “knows” it only from the largely irresponsible things written and said about it, will be surprised to discover that The Bell… More

Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns

– Ulrich Neisser, chair, report of a Task Force established by the American Psychological Association, American Psychologist, February 1996.
Excerpt: In the fall of 1994, the publication of Herrnstein and Murray’s book The Bell Curve sparked a new round of debate about the meaning of intelligence test scores and the nature… More

IQ since The Bell Curve

– Christopher F. Chabris, Commentary, August 1998.
Excerpt: In The Bell Curve, Herrnstein and Murray set out to prove that American society was becoming increasingly meritocratic, in the sense that wealth and other positive social outcomes… More

Race and IQ: Part III

– Thomas Sowell, Townhall.com, October 3, 2002.
Excerpt: I happened to run into Charles Murray in Dulles International Airport while he and Richard Herrnstein were writing “The Bell Curve.” When I asked him what he was… More

Interview with James Heckman

– Douglas Clement, The Region, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, June 2005.
Excerpt: Region: In 1995, you wrote a very strong critique of The Bell Curve, Herrnstein and Murray’s book about IQ, genetics and ability, which argued that nature far outweighs… More

American Caste

– Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal, Spring 2012.
Excerpt: When Charles Murray’s best-selling Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010 appeared a few months ago, the book’s fictional working-class neighborhood, Fishtown,… More

The Bell Curve Revisited

– Video, the Program on Constitutional Government, Harvard University, March 14, 2014.
Summary: Charles Murray, on “The Bell Curve Revisited.” Charles Murray is a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the author of famous and influential books, among… More

The Bell Curve: IQ, Race and Gender

– Video, discussion with Stefan Molyneux, Freedomain Radio, September 14, 2015.
Summary: In continuing our discussion on Human Intelligence and the predictive powers of IQ, Charles Murray joins the broadcast to discuss the latest science regarding ethnic and gender… More

Essays

After L.A.—Causes, Root Causes, and Cures

– National Review, June 8, 1992.
Excerpt: The Rodney King verdict seemed as outrageous to me as it did to most Americans. But if it was outrageous, it was also laden with meaning. It opens a new and explosively dangerous… More

Upon This Rock: The Miracle of a Black Church

– City Journal, Winter 1993.
Excerpt: Upon This Rock (HarperCollins, $22.50) is a sourcebook for thinking about the black inner city. Not for understanding it, nor for solving its problems—this is more than one may… More

What Is Intelligence, and Who Has It?

– Malcolm W. Browne, New York Times, October 16, 1994.
Excerpt: In “The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life,” Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray write, “Mounting evidence indicates that… More

IQ: What’s the Fuss?

– Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, October 21, 1994.
Excerpt: “The Bell Curve” is a powerful, scrupulous, landmark study of the relationship between intelligence and social class, which is what the book is mainly about. It is… More

‘Bell Curve’ Ballistics

– Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, October 26, 1994.
Excerpt: “The Bell Curve” — the controversial book about the role of intelligence in society — is already a commercial success. Its publisher reports that it has now… More

A Conversation with Charles Murray

– Transcript, Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg, October 1994.
Excerpt: MR. WATTENBERG: Hello. I’m Ben Wattenberg. Welcome to a special two-part edition of Think Tank. You know, sometimes an argument within the scholarly community is so fierce… More

Genes, Race, and IQ—An Apologia

– The New Republic, October 31, 1994 (with Richard Herrnstein.)
Excerpt: As of 1994, then, we can say nothing for certain about the relative roles that genetics and environment play in the formation of the black-white difference in I.Q. All the evidence… More

Book Discussion on The Bell Curve

– Video, C-SPAN, November 8, 1994.
Summary: The co-author discussed his book, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. The book focuses on human intelligence and the way social problems are affected… More

Acting Smart

– James Q. Wilson, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Serious readers will ask four main questions about The Bell Curve. Is it true that intelligence explains so much behavior? How can IQ produce this effect? If it does, is there… More

Common Knowledge

– Michael Barone, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve is not an argument for racial discrimination. It is an argument against racial discrimination, against the one form of racial discrimination that is sanctioned by… More

Legacy of Racism

– Pat Shipman, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Human intelligence is an eel-like subject: slippery, difficult to grasp, and almost impossible to get straight. Charles Murray and the late Richard Herrnstein make a heroic attempt… More

Not Hopeless

– Ernest Van den Haag, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve shows that cognitive ability measured by IQ tests reliably predicts success—professional, academic, pecuniary—and that, on average, African-Americans have an IQ… More

Going Public

– Richard John Neuhaus, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The statistical data on which the book bases its conclusions about the cognitive differences between whites and blacks are impressive. And, since it would seem to be nearly… More

Living with Inequality

– Eugene D. Genovese, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve has much to offer. Its excellent analysis of the transformation of the American elite deserves high praise and a many-sided elaboration and critique, as do its… More

Trashing The Bell Curve

– Daniel Seligman, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: It is clear enough what The Bell Curve‘s liberal critics want. They want its ideas suppressed. They want the data to go away. They want the authors depicted as kooks and… More

Paroxysms of Denial

– Arthur R. Jensen, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Commenting not as an advocate but as an expert witness, I can say that The Bell Curve is correct in all its essential facts. The graphically presented analyses of fresh data (from… More

Is Intelligence Fixed?

– Nathan Glazer, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Herrnstein and Murray give some surprising data (surprising in the light of their argument that intelligence is fixed early and can’t be changed appreciably through… More

Meritocracy That Works

– Loren E. Lomasky, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: If the aim of social policy is to raise the abilities of the less well-off, without trying to achieve parity across races and classes, then speculation concerning the genetic basis… More

Methodological Fetishism

– Brigitte Berger, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: For all its wealth of data, skillful argumentation, and scope, The Bell Curve is a narrow and deeply flawed book. Murray and Herrnstein have fallen prey to a methodological… More

Dispirited

– Glenn C. Loury, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Reading Herrnstein and Murray’s treatise causes me once again to reflect on the limited utility in the management of human affairs of that academic endeavor generously termed… More

Mainstream Science on Intelligence

– Wall Street Journal, December 13, 1994.
Excerpt: Since the publication of “The Bell Curve,” many commentators have offered opinions about human intelligence that misstate current scientific evidence. Some conclusions… More

The Bell Curve

– Chester Finn, Commentary, January 1995.
Excerpt: As any author can attest who has brought forth a book and waited months for even the hometown paper—let alone the New York Times—to review it, the instant celebrity accorded… More

Ethnicity and IQ

– Thomas Sowell, The American Spectator, February 1995.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve is a very sober, very thorough, and very honest book—on a subject where sobriety, thoroughness, and honesty are only likely to provoke cries of outrage. Its… More

The Bell Curve and Its Critics by Charles Murray

– Charles Murray, Commentary, May 1995.
Excerpt: In November 1989, Richard Herrnstein and I agreed to collaborate on a book that, five years later, became The Bell Curve. It is a book about events at the two ends of the… More

Intelligence and the Social Scientist

– Leon R. Kass, The Public Interest, Summer 1995.
Excerpt: Someone who has not read the book, but “knows” it only from the largely irresponsible things written and said about it, will be surprised to discover that The Bell… More

Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns

– Ulrich Neisser, chair, report of a Task Force established by the American Psychological Association, American Psychologist, February 1996.
Excerpt: In the fall of 1994, the publication of Herrnstein and Murray’s book The Bell Curve sparked a new round of debate about the meaning of intelligence test scores and the nature… More

IQ since The Bell Curve

– Christopher F. Chabris, Commentary, August 1998.
Excerpt: In The Bell Curve, Herrnstein and Murray set out to prove that American society was becoming increasingly meritocratic, in the sense that wealth and other positive social outcomes… More

Race and IQ: Part III

– Thomas Sowell, Townhall.com, October 3, 2002.
Excerpt: I happened to run into Charles Murray in Dulles International Airport while he and Richard Herrnstein were writing “The Bell Curve.” When I asked him what he was… More

Interview with James Heckman

– Douglas Clement, The Region, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, June 2005.
Excerpt: Region: In 1995, you wrote a very strong critique of The Bell Curve, Herrnstein and Murray’s book about IQ, genetics and ability, which argued that nature far outweighs… More

American Caste

– Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal, Spring 2012.
Excerpt: When Charles Murray’s best-selling Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010 appeared a few months ago, the book’s fictional working-class neighborhood, Fishtown,… More

The Bell Curve Revisited

– Video, the Program on Constitutional Government, Harvard University, March 14, 2014.
Summary: Charles Murray, on “The Bell Curve Revisited.” Charles Murray is a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the author of famous and influential books, among… More

The Bell Curve: IQ, Race and Gender

– Video, discussion with Stefan Molyneux, Freedomain Radio, September 14, 2015.
Summary: In continuing our discussion on Human Intelligence and the predictive powers of IQ, Charles Murray joins the broadcast to discuss the latest science regarding ethnic and gender… More

Commentary

After L.A.—Causes, Root Causes, and Cures

– National Review, June 8, 1992.
Excerpt: The Rodney King verdict seemed as outrageous to me as it did to most Americans. But if it was outrageous, it was also laden with meaning. It opens a new and explosively dangerous… More

Upon This Rock: The Miracle of a Black Church

– City Journal, Winter 1993.
Excerpt: Upon This Rock (HarperCollins, $22.50) is a sourcebook for thinking about the black inner city. Not for understanding it, nor for solving its problems—this is more than one may… More

What Is Intelligence, and Who Has It?

– Malcolm W. Browne, New York Times, October 16, 1994.
Excerpt: In “The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life,” Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray write, “Mounting evidence indicates that… More

IQ: What’s the Fuss?

– Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, October 21, 1994.
Excerpt: “The Bell Curve” is a powerful, scrupulous, landmark study of the relationship between intelligence and social class, which is what the book is mainly about. It is… More

‘Bell Curve’ Ballistics

– Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, October 26, 1994.
Excerpt: “The Bell Curve” — the controversial book about the role of intelligence in society — is already a commercial success. Its publisher reports that it has now… More

A Conversation with Charles Murray

– Transcript, Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg, October 1994.
Excerpt: MR. WATTENBERG: Hello. I’m Ben Wattenberg. Welcome to a special two-part edition of Think Tank. You know, sometimes an argument within the scholarly community is so fierce… More

Genes, Race, and IQ—An Apologia

– The New Republic, October 31, 1994 (with Richard Herrnstein.)
Excerpt: As of 1994, then, we can say nothing for certain about the relative roles that genetics and environment play in the formation of the black-white difference in I.Q. All the evidence… More

Book Discussion on The Bell Curve

– Video, C-SPAN, November 8, 1994.
Summary: The co-author discussed his book, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. The book focuses on human intelligence and the way social problems are affected… More

Acting Smart

– James Q. Wilson, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Serious readers will ask four main questions about The Bell Curve. Is it true that intelligence explains so much behavior? How can IQ produce this effect? If it does, is there… More

Common Knowledge

– Michael Barone, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve is not an argument for racial discrimination. It is an argument against racial discrimination, against the one form of racial discrimination that is sanctioned by… More

Legacy of Racism

– Pat Shipman, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Human intelligence is an eel-like subject: slippery, difficult to grasp, and almost impossible to get straight. Charles Murray and the late Richard Herrnstein make a heroic attempt… More

Not Hopeless

– Ernest Van den Haag, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve shows that cognitive ability measured by IQ tests reliably predicts success—professional, academic, pecuniary—and that, on average, African-Americans have an IQ… More

Going Public

– Richard John Neuhaus, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The statistical data on which the book bases its conclusions about the cognitive differences between whites and blacks are impressive. And, since it would seem to be nearly… More

Living with Inequality

– Eugene D. Genovese, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve has much to offer. Its excellent analysis of the transformation of the American elite deserves high praise and a many-sided elaboration and critique, as do its… More

Trashing The Bell Curve

– Daniel Seligman, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: It is clear enough what The Bell Curve‘s liberal critics want. They want its ideas suppressed. They want the data to go away. They want the authors depicted as kooks and… More

Paroxysms of Denial

– Arthur R. Jensen, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Commenting not as an advocate but as an expert witness, I can say that The Bell Curve is correct in all its essential facts. The graphically presented analyses of fresh data (from… More

Is Intelligence Fixed?

– Nathan Glazer, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Herrnstein and Murray give some surprising data (surprising in the light of their argument that intelligence is fixed early and can’t be changed appreciably through… More

Meritocracy That Works

– Loren E. Lomasky, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: If the aim of social policy is to raise the abilities of the less well-off, without trying to achieve parity across races and classes, then speculation concerning the genetic basis… More

Methodological Fetishism

– Brigitte Berger, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: For all its wealth of data, skillful argumentation, and scope, The Bell Curve is a narrow and deeply flawed book. Murray and Herrnstein have fallen prey to a methodological… More

Dispirited

– Glenn C. Loury, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Reading Herrnstein and Murray’s treatise causes me once again to reflect on the limited utility in the management of human affairs of that academic endeavor generously termed… More

Mainstream Science on Intelligence

– Wall Street Journal, December 13, 1994.
Excerpt: Since the publication of “The Bell Curve,” many commentators have offered opinions about human intelligence that misstate current scientific evidence. Some conclusions… More

The Bell Curve

– Chester Finn, Commentary, January 1995.
Excerpt: As any author can attest who has brought forth a book and waited months for even the hometown paper—let alone the New York Times—to review it, the instant celebrity accorded… More

Ethnicity and IQ

– Thomas Sowell, The American Spectator, February 1995.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve is a very sober, very thorough, and very honest book—on a subject where sobriety, thoroughness, and honesty are only likely to provoke cries of outrage. Its… More

The Bell Curve and Its Critics by Charles Murray

– Charles Murray, Commentary, May 1995.
Excerpt: In November 1989, Richard Herrnstein and I agreed to collaborate on a book that, five years later, became The Bell Curve. It is a book about events at the two ends of the… More

Intelligence and the Social Scientist

– Leon R. Kass, The Public Interest, Summer 1995.
Excerpt: Someone who has not read the book, but “knows” it only from the largely irresponsible things written and said about it, will be surprised to discover that The Bell… More

Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns

– Ulrich Neisser, chair, report of a Task Force established by the American Psychological Association, American Psychologist, February 1996.
Excerpt: In the fall of 1994, the publication of Herrnstein and Murray’s book The Bell Curve sparked a new round of debate about the meaning of intelligence test scores and the nature… More

IQ since The Bell Curve

– Christopher F. Chabris, Commentary, August 1998.
Excerpt: In The Bell Curve, Herrnstein and Murray set out to prove that American society was becoming increasingly meritocratic, in the sense that wealth and other positive social outcomes… More

Race and IQ: Part III

– Thomas Sowell, Townhall.com, October 3, 2002.
Excerpt: I happened to run into Charles Murray in Dulles International Airport while he and Richard Herrnstein were writing “The Bell Curve.” When I asked him what he was… More

Interview with James Heckman

– Douglas Clement, The Region, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, June 2005.
Excerpt: Region: In 1995, you wrote a very strong critique of The Bell Curve, Herrnstein and Murray’s book about IQ, genetics and ability, which argued that nature far outweighs… More

American Caste

– Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal, Spring 2012.
Excerpt: When Charles Murray’s best-selling Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010 appeared a few months ago, the book’s fictional working-class neighborhood, Fishtown,… More

The Bell Curve Revisited

– Video, the Program on Constitutional Government, Harvard University, March 14, 2014.
Summary: Charles Murray, on “The Bell Curve Revisited.” Charles Murray is a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the author of famous and influential books, among… More

The Bell Curve: IQ, Race and Gender

– Video, discussion with Stefan Molyneux, Freedomain Radio, September 14, 2015.
Summary: In continuing our discussion on Human Intelligence and the predictive powers of IQ, Charles Murray joins the broadcast to discuss the latest science regarding ethnic and gender… More

Multimedia

After L.A.—Causes, Root Causes, and Cures

– National Review, June 8, 1992.
Excerpt: The Rodney King verdict seemed as outrageous to me as it did to most Americans. But if it was outrageous, it was also laden with meaning. It opens a new and explosively dangerous… More

Upon This Rock: The Miracle of a Black Church

– City Journal, Winter 1993.
Excerpt: Upon This Rock (HarperCollins, $22.50) is a sourcebook for thinking about the black inner city. Not for understanding it, nor for solving its problems—this is more than one may… More

What Is Intelligence, and Who Has It?

– Malcolm W. Browne, New York Times, October 16, 1994.
Excerpt: In “The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life,” Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray write, “Mounting evidence indicates that… More

IQ: What’s the Fuss?

– Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, October 21, 1994.
Excerpt: “The Bell Curve” is a powerful, scrupulous, landmark study of the relationship between intelligence and social class, which is what the book is mainly about. It is… More

‘Bell Curve’ Ballistics

– Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, October 26, 1994.
Excerpt: “The Bell Curve” — the controversial book about the role of intelligence in society — is already a commercial success. Its publisher reports that it has now… More

A Conversation with Charles Murray

– Transcript, Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg, October 1994.
Excerpt: MR. WATTENBERG: Hello. I’m Ben Wattenberg. Welcome to a special two-part edition of Think Tank. You know, sometimes an argument within the scholarly community is so fierce… More

Genes, Race, and IQ—An Apologia

– The New Republic, October 31, 1994 (with Richard Herrnstein.)
Excerpt: As of 1994, then, we can say nothing for certain about the relative roles that genetics and environment play in the formation of the black-white difference in I.Q. All the evidence… More

Book Discussion on The Bell Curve

– Video, C-SPAN, November 8, 1994.
Summary: The co-author discussed his book, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. The book focuses on human intelligence and the way social problems are affected… More

Acting Smart

– James Q. Wilson, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Serious readers will ask four main questions about The Bell Curve. Is it true that intelligence explains so much behavior? How can IQ produce this effect? If it does, is there… More

Common Knowledge

– Michael Barone, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve is not an argument for racial discrimination. It is an argument against racial discrimination, against the one form of racial discrimination that is sanctioned by… More

Legacy of Racism

– Pat Shipman, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Human intelligence is an eel-like subject: slippery, difficult to grasp, and almost impossible to get straight. Charles Murray and the late Richard Herrnstein make a heroic attempt… More

Not Hopeless

– Ernest Van den Haag, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve shows that cognitive ability measured by IQ tests reliably predicts success—professional, academic, pecuniary—and that, on average, African-Americans have an IQ… More

Going Public

– Richard John Neuhaus, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The statistical data on which the book bases its conclusions about the cognitive differences between whites and blacks are impressive. And, since it would seem to be nearly… More

Living with Inequality

– Eugene D. Genovese, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve has much to offer. Its excellent analysis of the transformation of the American elite deserves high praise and a many-sided elaboration and critique, as do its… More

Trashing The Bell Curve

– Daniel Seligman, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: It is clear enough what The Bell Curve‘s liberal critics want. They want its ideas suppressed. They want the data to go away. They want the authors depicted as kooks and… More

Paroxysms of Denial

– Arthur R. Jensen, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Commenting not as an advocate but as an expert witness, I can say that The Bell Curve is correct in all its essential facts. The graphically presented analyses of fresh data (from… More

Is Intelligence Fixed?

– Nathan Glazer, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Herrnstein and Murray give some surprising data (surprising in the light of their argument that intelligence is fixed early and can’t be changed appreciably through… More

Meritocracy That Works

– Loren E. Lomasky, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: If the aim of social policy is to raise the abilities of the less well-off, without trying to achieve parity across races and classes, then speculation concerning the genetic basis… More

Methodological Fetishism

– Brigitte Berger, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: For all its wealth of data, skillful argumentation, and scope, The Bell Curve is a narrow and deeply flawed book. Murray and Herrnstein have fallen prey to a methodological… More

Dispirited

– Glenn C. Loury, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Reading Herrnstein and Murray’s treatise causes me once again to reflect on the limited utility in the management of human affairs of that academic endeavor generously termed… More

Mainstream Science on Intelligence

– Wall Street Journal, December 13, 1994.
Excerpt: Since the publication of “The Bell Curve,” many commentators have offered opinions about human intelligence that misstate current scientific evidence. Some conclusions… More

The Bell Curve

– Chester Finn, Commentary, January 1995.
Excerpt: As any author can attest who has brought forth a book and waited months for even the hometown paper—let alone the New York Times—to review it, the instant celebrity accorded… More

Ethnicity and IQ

– Thomas Sowell, The American Spectator, February 1995.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve is a very sober, very thorough, and very honest book—on a subject where sobriety, thoroughness, and honesty are only likely to provoke cries of outrage. Its… More

The Bell Curve and Its Critics by Charles Murray

– Charles Murray, Commentary, May 1995.
Excerpt: In November 1989, Richard Herrnstein and I agreed to collaborate on a book that, five years later, became The Bell Curve. It is a book about events at the two ends of the… More

Intelligence and the Social Scientist

– Leon R. Kass, The Public Interest, Summer 1995.
Excerpt: Someone who has not read the book, but “knows” it only from the largely irresponsible things written and said about it, will be surprised to discover that The Bell… More

Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns

– Ulrich Neisser, chair, report of a Task Force established by the American Psychological Association, American Psychologist, February 1996.
Excerpt: In the fall of 1994, the publication of Herrnstein and Murray’s book The Bell Curve sparked a new round of debate about the meaning of intelligence test scores and the nature… More

IQ since The Bell Curve

– Christopher F. Chabris, Commentary, August 1998.
Excerpt: In The Bell Curve, Herrnstein and Murray set out to prove that American society was becoming increasingly meritocratic, in the sense that wealth and other positive social outcomes… More

Race and IQ: Part III

– Thomas Sowell, Townhall.com, October 3, 2002.
Excerpt: I happened to run into Charles Murray in Dulles International Airport while he and Richard Herrnstein were writing “The Bell Curve.” When I asked him what he was… More

Interview with James Heckman

– Douglas Clement, The Region, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, June 2005.
Excerpt: Region: In 1995, you wrote a very strong critique of The Bell Curve, Herrnstein and Murray’s book about IQ, genetics and ability, which argued that nature far outweighs… More

American Caste

– Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal, Spring 2012.
Excerpt: When Charles Murray’s best-selling Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010 appeared a few months ago, the book’s fictional working-class neighborhood, Fishtown,… More

The Bell Curve Revisited

– Video, the Program on Constitutional Government, Harvard University, March 14, 2014.
Summary: Charles Murray, on “The Bell Curve Revisited.” Charles Murray is a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the author of famous and influential books, among… More

The Bell Curve: IQ, Race and Gender

– Video, discussion with Stefan Molyneux, Freedomain Radio, September 14, 2015.
Summary: In continuing our discussion on Human Intelligence and the predictive powers of IQ, Charles Murray joins the broadcast to discuss the latest science regarding ethnic and gender… More

Teaching

After L.A.—Causes, Root Causes, and Cures

– National Review, June 8, 1992.
Excerpt: The Rodney King verdict seemed as outrageous to me as it did to most Americans. But if it was outrageous, it was also laden with meaning. It opens a new and explosively dangerous… More

Upon This Rock: The Miracle of a Black Church

– City Journal, Winter 1993.
Excerpt: Upon This Rock (HarperCollins, $22.50) is a sourcebook for thinking about the black inner city. Not for understanding it, nor for solving its problems—this is more than one may… More

What Is Intelligence, and Who Has It?

– Malcolm W. Browne, New York Times, October 16, 1994.
Excerpt: In “The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life,” Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray write, “Mounting evidence indicates that… More

IQ: What’s the Fuss?

– Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, October 21, 1994.
Excerpt: “The Bell Curve” is a powerful, scrupulous, landmark study of the relationship between intelligence and social class, which is what the book is mainly about. It is… More

‘Bell Curve’ Ballistics

– Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, October 26, 1994.
Excerpt: “The Bell Curve” — the controversial book about the role of intelligence in society — is already a commercial success. Its publisher reports that it has now… More

A Conversation with Charles Murray

– Transcript, Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg, October 1994.
Excerpt: MR. WATTENBERG: Hello. I’m Ben Wattenberg. Welcome to a special two-part edition of Think Tank. You know, sometimes an argument within the scholarly community is so fierce… More

Genes, Race, and IQ—An Apologia

– The New Republic, October 31, 1994 (with Richard Herrnstein.)
Excerpt: As of 1994, then, we can say nothing for certain about the relative roles that genetics and environment play in the formation of the black-white difference in I.Q. All the evidence… More

Book Discussion on The Bell Curve

– Video, C-SPAN, November 8, 1994.
Summary: The co-author discussed his book, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. The book focuses on human intelligence and the way social problems are affected… More

Acting Smart

– James Q. Wilson, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Serious readers will ask four main questions about The Bell Curve. Is it true that intelligence explains so much behavior? How can IQ produce this effect? If it does, is there… More

Common Knowledge

– Michael Barone, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve is not an argument for racial discrimination. It is an argument against racial discrimination, against the one form of racial discrimination that is sanctioned by… More

Legacy of Racism

– Pat Shipman, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Human intelligence is an eel-like subject: slippery, difficult to grasp, and almost impossible to get straight. Charles Murray and the late Richard Herrnstein make a heroic attempt… More

Not Hopeless

– Ernest Van den Haag, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve shows that cognitive ability measured by IQ tests reliably predicts success—professional, academic, pecuniary—and that, on average, African-Americans have an IQ… More

Going Public

– Richard John Neuhaus, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The statistical data on which the book bases its conclusions about the cognitive differences between whites and blacks are impressive. And, since it would seem to be nearly… More

Living with Inequality

– Eugene D. Genovese, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve has much to offer. Its excellent analysis of the transformation of the American elite deserves high praise and a many-sided elaboration and critique, as do its… More

Trashing The Bell Curve

– Daniel Seligman, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: It is clear enough what The Bell Curve‘s liberal critics want. They want its ideas suppressed. They want the data to go away. They want the authors depicted as kooks and… More

Paroxysms of Denial

– Arthur R. Jensen, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Commenting not as an advocate but as an expert witness, I can say that The Bell Curve is correct in all its essential facts. The graphically presented analyses of fresh data (from… More

Is Intelligence Fixed?

– Nathan Glazer, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Herrnstein and Murray give some surprising data (surprising in the light of their argument that intelligence is fixed early and can’t be changed appreciably through… More

Meritocracy That Works

– Loren E. Lomasky, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: If the aim of social policy is to raise the abilities of the less well-off, without trying to achieve parity across races and classes, then speculation concerning the genetic basis… More

Methodological Fetishism

– Brigitte Berger, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: For all its wealth of data, skillful argumentation, and scope, The Bell Curve is a narrow and deeply flawed book. Murray and Herrnstein have fallen prey to a methodological… More

Dispirited

– Glenn C. Loury, National Review, December 5, 1994.
Excerpt: Reading Herrnstein and Murray’s treatise causes me once again to reflect on the limited utility in the management of human affairs of that academic endeavor generously termed… More

Mainstream Science on Intelligence

– Wall Street Journal, December 13, 1994.
Excerpt: Since the publication of “The Bell Curve,” many commentators have offered opinions about human intelligence that misstate current scientific evidence. Some conclusions… More

The Bell Curve

– Chester Finn, Commentary, January 1995.
Excerpt: As any author can attest who has brought forth a book and waited months for even the hometown paper—let alone the New York Times—to review it, the instant celebrity accorded… More

Ethnicity and IQ

– Thomas Sowell, The American Spectator, February 1995.
Excerpt: The Bell Curve is a very sober, very thorough, and very honest book—on a subject where sobriety, thoroughness, and honesty are only likely to provoke cries of outrage. Its… More

The Bell Curve and Its Critics by Charles Murray

– Charles Murray, Commentary, May 1995.
Excerpt: In November 1989, Richard Herrnstein and I agreed to collaborate on a book that, five years later, became The Bell Curve. It is a book about events at the two ends of the… More

Intelligence and the Social Scientist

– Leon R. Kass, The Public Interest, Summer 1995.
Excerpt: Someone who has not read the book, but “knows” it only from the largely irresponsible things written and said about it, will be surprised to discover that The Bell… More

Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns

– Ulrich Neisser, chair, report of a Task Force established by the American Psychological Association, American Psychologist, February 1996.
Excerpt: In the fall of 1994, the publication of Herrnstein and Murray’s book The Bell Curve sparked a new round of debate about the meaning of intelligence test scores and the nature… More

IQ since The Bell Curve

– Christopher F. Chabris, Commentary, August 1998.
Excerpt: In The Bell Curve, Herrnstein and Murray set out to prove that American society was becoming increasingly meritocratic, in the sense that wealth and other positive social outcomes… More

Race and IQ: Part III

– Thomas Sowell, Townhall.com, October 3, 2002.
Excerpt: I happened to run into Charles Murray in Dulles International Airport while he and Richard Herrnstein were writing “The Bell Curve.” When I asked him what he was… More

Interview with James Heckman

– Douglas Clement, The Region, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, June 2005.
Excerpt: Region: In 1995, you wrote a very strong critique of The Bell Curve, Herrnstein and Murray’s book about IQ, genetics and ability, which argued that nature far outweighs… More

American Caste

– Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal, Spring 2012.
Excerpt: When Charles Murray’s best-selling Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010 appeared a few months ago, the book’s fictional working-class neighborhood, Fishtown,… More

The Bell Curve Revisited

– Video, the Program on Constitutional Government, Harvard University, March 14, 2014.
Summary: Charles Murray, on “The Bell Curve Revisited.” Charles Murray is a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the author of famous and influential books, among… More

The Bell Curve: IQ, Race and Gender

– Video, discussion with Stefan Molyneux, Freedomain Radio, September 14, 2015.
Summary: In continuing our discussion on Human Intelligence and the predictive powers of IQ, Charles Murray joins the broadcast to discuss the latest science regarding ethnic and gender… More