I have my own review forthcoming, so I won’t say much, but Inside Higher Ed has reviews here and here. Not sure why they had two reviewers both argue the thesis that we need more people, not fewer, going to college.

One would have sufficed, and Robert T. Perry seems not to have picked up on Murray’s qualifications that while we should have fewer people going to college, we should have more people in training programs for specific careers, and more employers willing to accept such training in lieu of a diploma. Did he read the book? It’s not a counterargument to point out that now, lots of jobs require college degrees.

And one comment I can’t resist on Kevin Carey’s review: When Carey says Murray provides “no evidence” for this or that, he’s almost always wrong. One can take issue with the evidence Murray provides (I do in some cases), but the evidence is there.

I do, however, share Carey’s bafflement at the “simple truth” of Murray’s that “half of children are below average.” It’s basically just a bad restatement of the first truth, “ability varies.”