Worse than useless
A dire disappointment after the outstanding Bell Curve. On his own Mr Murray does not appear particularly smart. His reasoning is often labored and he commits numerous logical fallacies. Worst of all, the results of his massive labor do not bear scrutiny. Naturally I can only comment on areas that I know, which are Western literature and Western art. In both cases the eventual rankings are not only useless, they are nonsensical. They do not measure excellence at all. I shall give two examples. I live in a small country that has produced very few literary greats, bar one: Louis Couperus, whose towering genius is undisputed. He is not even mentioned in this book; several dwarves are. The only possible explanation is that his writing has not been very fashionable in the last 40 years. In Western art the 19th century is grossly underexposed, although it was an extremely fertile period of creative activity. Anyone who takes the trouble to examine their work can easily find a dozen 19th-century painters who are vastly superior to many of the more familiar names on this list. The reason for their absence is obvious. At the end of the 19th century representational artists were rejected by modernists. They have been neglected by the media ever since. This book slavishly reflects that neglect. Therefore it is probably safe to presume that the rankings represent not the accomplishments of the artists but simply the amounts of attention given to them, a profoundly useless bit of information.
A Wake Up Call
This is a good book and makes for very interesting reading.
With that said, it is a book that champions the White Male. Pure and simple. Murray goes to great depths in his analysis in order to make the point. Okay, we get it. To read all the other editorials and the reviews on the Amazon site claiming this bias or that bias is near laughable. Some even challenge the statistical method employed. Okay, fine.
The minor point of this book is the wonderful trek through centuries of discovery and invention in a plethora of arenas. That a majority of these were made by white males is a no-brainer. We should eschew the silly arguments and enjoy the ride.
The major point is the decline in the rate of great accomplishments in the past century. I wrote of this concern in my latest book but certainly not in the detail presented by Murray. No matter our race, religion or culture, as the entity we call humankind, we should be shocked and appalled at this void of creativity we now find ourselves.
Let's answer the wake up call and avoid all the silly stuff.
I also enjoyed Economic Facts and Fallacies, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression and What It Means to Be a Libertarian
I hope you find this review (opinion) helpful.
Michael L. Gooch, SPHR
Excellent service !
The book was delivered in a very timely manner and was in excellent condition as advertised. I would definitely do business with this company again.
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