The Decline of Intelligence in America

SEYMOUR W. ITZKOFF has been a Professor at Smith College since 1965. Trained in music, philosophy, and educational theory, he is the author of 12 earlier books including The Road to Equality: Evolution and Social Reality (Praeger Trade, 1992) and a four-part series on the evolution of human intelligence.

. . . 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.

AcknowledgmentsDeclineIntroduction: Truth and National SurvivalNations, Powerful and WealthyAmerica's GreatnessEconomics: Is the Sleeper a Giant?Our Educational WreckageThe Social Bond UnravelsEbb TideThe Free Market of High IntelligenceThe Tragedy of Low IntelligenceRenewalDefensive DrivingThe American FamilyA Non-Hyphenated PeopleW.E. Burghardt DuBoisImmigration: Hot WarDisestablishing State SchoolingMiddle-Class Economics and the Social ContractNatality: World War IIIAppendix: America, 2044 A.D.NotesFor Further ReadingIndex