"Murray's overview of the progress of art and science is engaging, user-friendly . . . [Human Accomplishment is] bound to set the walls of the academy and the halls of learned journals ringing with rebuttals. But readers who took pleasure in Jacquwa Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence, are sure to enjoy his arguments and elegant presentation."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Charles Murray has made the first, audacious attempt to quantify individual genius, in the arts and sciences, in terms of cultural origin, and geographic distribution. You do not need to endorse his methods to find this a shocking, stimulating, and entertaining exercise."
--Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times
"At last Charles Murray has found a Himalayan task worthy of his great talents as a preeminent social thinker of our time, that of opening up for us a new science of human accomplishment. His subject and his treatment of it ennoble us."
--Michael Novak, author of The Fire of Invention
Straightforwardly and undogmatically, Charles Murray takes on some controversial questions: Why has accomplishment been so concentrated in Europe? Among men? Since 1400? He presents evidence that the rate of great accomplishment has been declining in the last century, asks what it means, and offers a rich framework for thinking about the conditions under which the human spirit has expressed itself most gloriously.
Eye-opening, humbling, and fascinating, Human Accomplishment is a brilliant work that describes what humans at their best can achieve, provides tools for exploring its wellsprings, and celebrates the continuing common quest of humans everywhere to discover truths, create beauty, and apprehend the good. [more...]
Charles Murray is the W.H. Brady Scholar in Culture and Freedom at AEI.
Table of Contents
A Note on Presentation Introduction
Part I: A Sense of Accomplishment
A Sense of Time
A Sense of Mystery
A Sense of Place
A Sense of Wonder
Part II: Identifying the People and Events That Matter
Excellence and Its Identification
The Lotka Curve
The People Who Matter I: Significant Figures
The People Who Matter II: The Giants
The Events That Matter I: Significant Events
The Events That Matter II: Meta-Inventions
Part III: Patterns and Trajectories
Coming to Terms with the Role of Modern Europe
. . . and of Dead White Males
Concentrations of European and American Accomplishment
Taking Population into Account: The Accomplishment Rate
Explanations I: Peace and Prosperity
Explanations II: Models, Elite Cities, and Freedom of Action
What's Left to Explain?
Part IV: On the Origins and Decline of Accomplishment
The Aristotelian Principle
Sources of Energy: Purpose and Autonomy
Sources of Content: The Organizing Structure and Transcendental Goods
Is Accomplishment Declining?
Summation
Appendix 1: Statistics for People Who Are Sure They Can't Learn Statistics Appendix 2: Construction of the Inventories and the Eminence Index Appendix 3: Inventory Sources Appendix 4: Geographic and Population Data Appendix 5: The Roster of the Significant Figures
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