To mark the one-year anniversary of the American release of my book, In the Know: Debunking 35 Myths About Human Intelligence, I have compiled the book’s reviews. Each reviewer has their own insights, and each found different things worth highlighting in the book.
The first review of my book was published by retired British psychology professor James Thompson. It’s a glowing review, with this excerpt probably being my favorite:
In Warne’s capable hands, each mistaken popular assertion is examined empirically and then logically. He gives short thrift to hypotheses which turn out to be unsupported, or formulated so vaguely as to be untestable. His process is entirely polite, but lethal.
James Thompson (2020)
Read the entire review to see more of Thompson’s insights.
Author Perrin Lovett wrote a response to Thompson’s review of In the Know, saying:
At any rate, consider buying this book next week and reading it. Then, you can use the presented rebuttals, casually, with those who innocently share the misunderstandings. Every little helps.
Perrin Lovett (October 21, 2020)
The British magazine The Critic published a review by Noah Carl in May 2021. In the review, Carl calls In the Know “an excellent new book.” He also says states that the book is “interesting, well-written, clearly structured, and meticulously referenced.” He concludes:
. . . In the Know is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about the fascinating science of human intelligence.
Noah Carl (May 2021, The Critic)
Academia moves much more slowly than the blogosphere or the journalistic media. The first scholarly review of In the Know was released in September 2021, almost a year after the book was published. Written by David Hambrick and published in the journal Intelligence, it states:
One way to read Warne’s book is the way he intends it to be read: as a corrective. But it can also be read simply as a summary of some of the most important findings in the history of intelligence research–our “greatest hits.” . . . Most of this will be news to the layperson, but the intelligence researcher will learn something from Warne’s book, too. I did, at least.
Hambrick (2021, p. 1)
Another review of the book appeared in Academic Questions and was written by educational researcher Richard P. Phelps. The review author sums up the book accurately and reaches the following conclusion:
Read the entirety of In the Know to experience something of a catharsis. One learns that the evidence for measurable intelligence is overwhelming. One also learns that new contrary arguments are constantly sprouting, with no end in sight. Warne takes on thirty-five of them and carefully and thoroughly rebuts each one. Surely, more will be coming. But one gets the sense after thirty-five convincing debunkings that the next ones will be debunked in turn.
Phelps (2022, p. 87).
I am grateful for the praise from the reviewers of the book, and I invite you to read each review in full. The readers I have heard from have also been overwhelmingly positive in their messages to me and in their comments online. Writing is a solitary activity, and hearing from people who enjoyed the book has made me feel connected to a my readers. It makes the experience of publishing a book much more rewarding.
You can order your copy of In the Know: Debunking 35 Myths About Human Intelligence from Cambridge University Press or Amazon.com. Readers who prefer e-books should check out Google Books, which seems to have the lowest e-book price.
References
Hambrick, D. Z. (2021). A review of Russell T. Warne’s In the know: Debunking 35 myths about human intelligence. Intelligence, 88, Article 101583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2021.101583
Phelps, R. P. (2022). The human intelligence debate [Review of In the know: Debunking 35 myths about human intelligence, by R. T. Warne]. Academic Questions, 35(3), 83-87. https://doi.org/10.51845/35.3.15
