Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Measure of Merit: Talents, Intelligence, and Inequality in the French and American Republics, 1750-1940

The Measure of Merit: Talents, Intelligence, and Inequality in the French and American Republics, 1750-1940

Carson, John

Hardcover

French HistoryGeneral United States HistoryGeneral World History

ISBN10: 0691017158
ISBN13: 9780691017150
Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr
Published: Nov 19 2006
Pages: 416
Weight: 1.65
Height: 1.32 Width: 6.48 Depth: 9.18
Language: English

A wide-ranging account of American and French understandings of merit, talent, and intelligence over the past two centuries

How have modern democracies squared their commitment to equality with their fear that disparities in talent and intelligence might be natural, persistent, and consequential? 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.

1 different editions

Also available

Also in

French History

View All