The Assault on Equality

by Peter Knapp, Jane Kronick, William Marks, Miriam Vosburgh

Overview

The Assault on Equality critiques the social theory underpinning the social policies of the new political right. It focuses on the attempt by Herrnstein and Murray in The Bell Curve to provide theoretical justification for social program cutbacks and coercive social policies. The Assault on Equality reanalyzes Herrnstein and Murray's own data and demonstrates that their conclusions are questionable results of polemic and ideology that ignore and contradict the fundamental findings and methods of 20th-century sociology and genetics. The policy proposals of Newt Gingrich are the political counterpart to the flawed social theory of The Bell Curve. Both scholarly and readable, this is an appropriate supplement in courses such as race relations, stratification, theory, policy, and research methods. It shows the contemporary relevance of basic theoretical and methodological insights of sociology contradicted by The Bell Curve and other works of the new political right. Appendices present the statistical issues and the theoretical background ignored by such works. From a multi-disciplinary perspective, the authors take issue with the social policy positions of the new right concerning affirmative action, education, family, race, social class, and welfare.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275956196
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/20/1996
Series:	Praeger Series in Political Economy Series
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

PETER KNAPP, a Professor of Sociology at Villanova University, is author of works on social theory such as One World, Many Worlds (1994).

JANE C. KRONICK, Professor of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College, is a well known researcher in the area of social policy.

R. WILLIAM MARKS, Associate Professor of Biology at Villanova University, specializes in genetics.

MIRIAM G. VOSBURGH, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Villanova University, is a demographer focusing on family studies.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
The History, Biology, and Psychology of IQ
A Meritocratic Social Structure
A Biogenetic View of Schools and Poverty
Family Matters and Moral Values
Race Inequalities
The Assault on Education and Affirmative Action
The Political Philosophy of Elitism
The Assault on Equality
Appendix 1: Statistical Methods
Appendix 2: The Scholarship of The Bell Curve
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Analyzes the arguments justifying inequality in The Bell Curve, (Herrnstein and Murray, 1994), sorting out the social science from the political ideology, and examining its scientific, scholarly, political, and moral claims. Demonstrates how The Bell Curve involves selective and polemical presentation of facts, withholds important information, and arbitrarily changes assumptions in order to mislead. For general readers and scholars. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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