 |
GetTextbooks.co.uk
Compare Prices & Save up to 90% |
|
|
|
| Login | Sign up | My Wish List |
 | | The Decline of Intelligence in America: A Strategy for National Renewal by Seymour W. Itzkoff ISBN-10: 9780275944674 ISBN-10: 0-275-94467-0 ISBN-13: 9780275944674 ISBN-13: 978-0-275-94467-4 Hardcover Praeger Publishers Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description " . . . Mr. Itzkoff places most of the blame for America's alleged intellectual decline on what he sees as an economically and intellectually elite cast of misguided liberals. They have isolated themselves from American society, he says, by their paternalistic treatment of the underclass, by discounting the importance of traditional family values and by failing to raise enough bright children to sustain national competence." The New York Times Book Review Few doubt that the United States has slipped from its longstanding eminence as the world's wealthiest and most productive nation. The problem for the past 30 years has been the diagnosis of both the decline and then the cure. Literally trillions of dollars have been expended in futile programs to stanch the hemorrhaging of our economic wealth, jobs, educational achievement, and cultural elan. Itzkoff argues that we will never stop the fall until we understand our real national dilemma. This is the decline in our national intelligence profile: fewer citizens of high intelligence, educational potential, and economic productivity. These ideas are taboo. Itzkoff, however, insists that these are the facts, and they must be examined. In this book, he lays out the available evidence for our social disintegration and suggests a rational program of policy initiatives that would begin to restore us to what we were as recently as 1955--the great hope of the world. | ||
Reviews | ||
Good Book, alas by a dreamer Itzkoff basically is concerned with America and its competitiveness and culture as its Average IQ drops (If you dont believe IQ is at least partially inherited, dont read this book, read "Peter Pan"). The reason is the lower IQ people are having more offspring than the brighter people. However the solutions he gives for this problem are that of a dreamer (hence the 4 stars). For instance, give priority to males with families for good jobs... as if the job market is based on politics and not economic forces. Also punish intelligent women who dont have children via the Tax system. These and other recommendations can only lead down the road to totaliarism. On the brighter side, there are things that can plausibly be done, like giving immigrants a cognitive ability test and establishing a cut off score for them. Or ending or severely curtailing the run-away welfare state which gives low IQ and illegitimate mothers free reign to have children they could not normally support. On the whole - an interesting and readable book. Get it unless you are a liberal dreamer. | ||
Virginia Abernethy's evidently not alone... Here's yet another book written by a white supremacist. Get it at the library and save your money. | ||
Apparently Seymour W. Itzkoff has never heard of Darwin. If you're a Darwinist, you're going to be disappointed in this book, as apparently Seymour W. Itzkoff has never heard of Darwin. The premise of his theory rests on the findings of the 1992 Princeton study conducted by the Princeton Testing Service, which concluded essentially that intellectuals aren't breeding any more--only people, shall we say, at the other end of the intellectual spectrum are. It seems that the study suggests this is the case not only in America, but around the globe. However, the Princeton Testing Service does not allow the general public access to their reports, so unless you happened to subscribe to The Chronicle of Higher Education back in January 1993 there is no way to verify these findings. If you did subscribe to The Chronicle of Higher Education at that time, then there's no reason for you to buy this book, especially not at the $99 list price; you're better off without Itzkoff's unprofessional interpretation of those findings. I'll ignore the racist implications of some of Itzkoff's statements (and he does make them, so be prepared for that). He immediately discounts Darwin, and jumps to the sophomoric conclusion that intellectuals aren't breeding any more because they have too much money and no sense of responsibility. It seems more likely that intellectuals are simply aware of dangerous human overpopulation of the planet and are tailoring their own reproduction accordingly, not wishing to breed children when their children's lives are compromised by population pressure. To admit this, however, would lead to an obvious and unpleasant realization: that only a fool breeds children for the ovens and the gas chambers, and that's an observation Itzkoff is reluctant to make. | ||
This suggests what few will consider. Itzkoff's solutions will draw up fire from the masses. One of his suggestions is basically that unintelligent people be discouraged from breeding, and intelligent people have most of the country's children. This is wise, and objections to it stem from ungifted humans' selfish desire to keep their bloodlines alive. The only other solution is genetic engineering, but nobody seems to want that either. Itzkoff's other suggestions, such as school vouchers, are perhaps more politically correct. Overall, America needs more intelligent people, a goal worthy of acheivement, even if brings the "bigot" label to us. | ||