Take This $10,000 And Shove It

David Weigel | April 13, 2006

The New Republic, which famously promoted Charles Murray's 1994 The Bell Curve, has run an extremely pithy take-down of Murray by Ezra Klein. The target is Murray's book The Plan, whose title, to Klein, evokes James Bond villainy. (It reminds me of the cult in "Six Feet Under," but whatever.)

The Bell Curve got a cover story and 95% of an issue of the magazine. The Plan gets one review that dismisses Murray's work and mocks his "timeless quest for meaning." Does this bespeak a shift in Murray's influence, or in TNR's?

Ron Bailey and Nick Gillespie interviewed Murray for his last book, in 2004. And you can read Reason's review of The Bell Curve, by James J. Heckman, here.