author
Henry Herbert Goddard
1866–1957
A pioneering psychologist in early intelligence testing, he helped bring the Binet-Simon test to the United States and became one of the most influential — and controversial — voices in the history of mental measurement.
2 Audiobooks
The Criminal Imbecile: An Analysis of Three Remarkable Murder Cases
by Henry Herbert Goddard
The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness
by Henry Herbert Goddard
About the author
Born in 1866 and dying in 1957, Henry Herbert Goddard was an American psychologist best known for his work on intelligence testing and for his years at the Vineland Training School in New Jersey. He played a major role in introducing the Binet-Simon intelligence test to English-speaking readers in the early twentieth century, which helped shape psychological testing in the United States.
He is also closely associated with The Kallikak Family (1912), a book that had wide influence in its time. Later generations have strongly criticized that work and other parts of his career for promoting eugenic ideas and harmful claims about heredity, disability, and social worth. Because of that, he is remembered today as both an important figure in the development of psychological testing and a cautionary example of how science can be used to support damaging social beliefs.
His legacy is therefore a complicated one: historically significant, but deeply tied to ideas that caused real harm. Readers interested in his work often encounter him not just as a psychologist, but as part of the larger story of intelligence testing, special education, and the history of eugenics in America.