A Cultural Scorecard Says West Is Ahead (Charles Murray alert)

NY Times ^ | 10/25/03 | EMILY EAKIN

[Valin]

BURKITTSVILLE, Md. — "I do not set out to write controversial books," Charles Murray says with an easy laugh. "I don't know whether part of the attraction might be the forbidden," he adds earnestly. "If it is, it's not very much."

It is tempting to believe him. Dressed in blue jeans, tennis shoes and a flannel shirt, his hands clasped confidently behind his head, he reclines in a swivel chair surrounded by books in his elegant study here overlooking a grove of weeping willows and a murky pond. At home in this rural Maryland village, about 70 miles from Washington and the policy circles in which his pronouncements are invariably debated, Mr. Murray — affable, gently weather-beaten but still ruggedly handsome at 60 — more plausibly suggests a gentleman farmer than America's most notorious social scientist.

But his record is hard to ignore. As the author of "Losing Ground" (1984), which argued that social programs do more harm than good, and then, with Richard J. Herrnstein, of "The Bell Curve" (1994), which theorized a genetic basis for class and IQ differences between blacks and whites, Mr. Murray has repeatedly managed what for a scholar is too rare a feat to be entirely accidental: to capture the national spotlight by arousing public ire. Is it any surprise that his latest book seems intended to inflame passions once again?

Published on Oct. 21 by HarperCollins and accompanied by a publicity release optimistically anointing it "his most ambitious and controversial work yet," "Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950" is well timed to stir debate. At a moment of considerable East-West tension, when the phrase "clash of civilizations" has rarely had greater currency, Mr. Murray has issued what he says is a mathematically precise global assessment of human achievement, a "résumé" of the species in which Europeans like Shakespeare, Beethoven and Einstein predominate and in which Christianity stands out as a crucial spur to excellence. Equally provocative, he maintains that the rate of Western accomplishment is currently in decline.

"As I write, it appears Europe's run is over," he asserts. "In another few hundred years, books will probably be exploring the reasons why some completely different part of the world became the locus of great human accomplishment. Now is a good time to stand back in admiration. What the human species is today it owes in astonishing degree to what was accomplished in just half a dozen centuries by the peoples of one small portion of the northwestern Eurasian land mass."

Mr. Murray, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank, says touting Western superiority is not his goal. He notes that he began work on the book six years ago, well before the current conflict in Iraq, and that as a former Peace Corps worker in Thailand who was married for 14 years to a Thai Buddhist, he has great respect for Eastern cultures. He says he conceived of the book as an exercise in "honest multiculturalism."

"I thought that in this regard I would come out saying, `Look, I'm not being politically correct when I say that China, Japan and some other places have made incredible contributions to human world culture,' " he said. "And I still say that, but it is also true that I was surprised by the extent to which Europe dominated."

Still, if his book does not get a warm reception from scholars, it may be less for political reasons than a technical one: its assumption that human achievement can be reduced to a number and tabulated by a computer. Experts have long sought to explain disparate rates of development in the East and West, from Max Weber, who attributed the economic transformation of early modern Europe to a Protestant work ethic, to Jared Diamond, who linked regional advances to geography and the environment. But while most use qualitative techniques to analyze people and events — making observations and arguments about the past — Mr. Murray takes a largely quantitative approach, relying on a relatively obscure statistical method known as historiometry.

[Valin]

Longish read, so excerpted

[Rodney King]

He's a great guy. I once went out for a drink with him at the Amsterdam Cafe at 119th and Amstgerdam in NY. He ordered a double bourbon with a beer chaser.

[Valin]

I recall first reading "Losing Ground" a real eye opener.

[Stingray51]

Losing Ground and the Bell Curve are both great books, and both were completely mischaracterized by the Left.

[untenured]

I once sent him an e-mail to a publicly listed address because I had a question about some of his work. Much to my surprise, he replied the same day and was very courteous and helpful throughout.

I also once attended a conference where one panel was organized to discuss the quality of the statistical work in The Bell Curve. I asked the chair whether he had been invited to participate, and she said he had not been because they were afraid of protests. I was appalled at such an enthusiastic surrender of scientific/academic principles.

[per loin]

The book is not available at my book store until November. Has anyone run across an online list of his rankings?

[AZFolks]

I have read The Bell Curve twice. Tough read. The basic premise of the book is not racist as has been alleged. The first part of the book is a defense of the much maligned IQ test. Unfortunately, many condemn the test but data shows it is very accurate in predicting achievement. Basically it tests the ability of people to recognize relationships. Simply put, it is the ability "to connect the dots." What was found is that Asians have the highest IQs, primarily in math, whites are second and blacks are third. I believe the book states 60% of IQ is nature and 40% is nurture, so good nurturing can compensate for a lot. It is interesting to note the highest IQs are among Eastern European jews. If one makes a giant leap, which I feel is appropriate, and asks which groups value education and learning most AS A WHOLE, I think it is clear the Orientals and Jews are very high on the list. In addition, it shows that the nuclear family is important in the development of IQ and the future success of children. Attacks on this book are not valid and just ignore a significant part of the problem with learning and education in the Country.