Montecito Author Stephen Murdoch’s IQ: A Smart History of a Failed Idea

Intelligence, to put it bluntly, is a stupid idea. Though the concept is deeply embedded in our culture, intelligence is really just a historical coincidence, a measure of nothing at all, save for possibly test-taking skill. Nonetheless, for the past century, tests of intelligence have been used to order society, not to mention oppress, imprison, sterilize, and kill. To this day, intelligence tests dictate the educational trajectories of our youth, classify different categories of “feebleminded” souls, and remain a pervasive figment of modern society. Testing for the nebulous notion of an intelligence quotient began in the 1880s; it’s about time we stop.

That’s the essential argument of IQ: The Smart History of a Failed Idea, the engaging expose and debut book from Montecito native Stephen Murdoch. A lively, revealing read, IQ takes us on a historical tour of intelligence tests, showing at each step why they’ve been more detrimental than beneficial to civilization. Though other critiques of intelligence testing exist, Murdoch’s account-which officially hit the streets earlier this summer-is the first aimed squarely at a mainstream audience. Murdoch has already been on multiple National Public Radio shows and received rave pre-release reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist. The attention is well deserved: The book is a clean, quick read, and the topic desperately needs some serious, informed debate. Plus, Murdoch, 39, who graduated from Santa Barbara High and was a human rights attorney in Cambodia and labor lawyer in Washington, D.C. before becoming a writer, is an all-around nice and-yep-intelligent guy.

Over coffee a couple of weeks ago, Murdoch explained that he started working on the book more than four years ago after realizing that an accessible tome on IQ didn’t exist. As he worked on the book, he discovered that it wasn’t just his background as an undergraduate psychology major that propelled him.