Anderson, Terry H.  The pursuit of fairness: a history of affirmative action.  Oxford, 2004.  320p bibl index afp ISBN 0-19-515764-8, $35.00. Reviewed in 2005feb CHOICE.
42-3594  HF5549  2003-24637 CIP 

Anderson (Texas A&M Univ.) has written a book that has needed to be written–a concise and balanced history of affirmative action. The book begins with its genesis during WW II and traces the development and implementation of official affirmative action plans in the late 1960s and early ’70s and on through the later legal and political challenges. Anderson contends that much of the debate over affirmative action has revolved around the ideal of “fairness,” although, as he shows, what Americans consider to be fair continuously shifts. While the author seeks to narrate the history of affirmative action rather than submit another argument for or against it, he appears to share Justice O’Connor’s opinion as delivered in the Grutter case, that the policy still has value for now, but not forever. Analytically the book has a few shortcomings. Anderson underestimates the bottom-up rather than top-down origins of affirmative action, and overestimates the degree to which there has ever been a consensus over what is fair when it comes to matters of race. Still, this readable, fair history of affirmative action deserves commendation and a wide readership. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public and undergraduate libraries. — P. B. Levy, York College of Pennsylvania 

Bowen, William G.  Equity and excellence in American higher education, by William G. Bowen, Martin A. Kurzweil, and Eugene M. Tobin with Susanne C. Pichler.  Virginia, 2005.  452p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8139-2350-6, $27.95. Reviewed in 2005oct CHOICE.
43-1071  LC213  2004-23111 CIP 

Bowen (president, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; former president, Princeton Univ.) has published a prodigious amount of scholarship on American higher education, including The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions coauthored with Derek Bok (CH, May’99, 36-5213). Now, with two Mellon colleagues, Bowen has reworked 2004 lectures at the University of Virginia into a first-rate examination of yet one more timely, complementary challenge for elite colleges and universities today–the decreasing representation of low-income students on their campuses. With 150 pages devoted to tables, figures, endnotes, and references, the authors tackle in both historical perspective and contemporary context the twin pursuits of excellence and fairness in the US system of higher education. After a review of the record and public policy overlays from earliest times through WW II, the authors move to their principal focus: the presence of educationally and financially disadvantaged students at the most selective institutions; public policy actions with regard to affirmative action and financial aid; and institutional policies with respect to admissions. This book’s research and messages cannot be ignored by any parties, including academic administrators and public policy decision makers, concerned about higher education in the US and abroad. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public, academic, and professional library collections. — A. R. Sanderson, University of Chicago 

Bowen, William G.  The shape of the river: long-term consequences of considering race in college and university admissions, by William G. Bowen and Derek Bok with James L. Shulman et al.  Princeton, 1998.  472p bibl index afp ISBN 0-691-00274-6, $24.95. Reviewed in 1999may CHOICE.
36-5213  LB2351  98-19900 CIP 

Tackling one of the most contentious social and political issues of the day, Bowen and Bok, well-respected scholars and former university presidents, have drawn on a large database spanning three decades to understand the role and impact of race-sensitive criteria for college admissions of both minority and majority students, in an effort to shift the debate on affirmative action from opinion to fact. The authors use detailed academic records and survey responses to explore the professional and personal development of 45,000 students, examining family histories; college experiences and advanced study; employment, earnings, and job satisfaction; participation in social and civic activities; personal satisfaction and attitudes; and their own family formation. Individual chapters treat the history of race-sensitive admissions in higher education and the admissions process itself, follow the subsequent lives of matriculants from two entering college cohorts (1976 and 1989), and end with conclusions regarding diversity and affirmative action in our society. The well-written text is complemented by a wealth of data, a description of the methodology, the survey instrument, and additional tables and references. Shape deserves the widespread coverage and acclaim it has received in national newspapers and journals; it will be required reading for scholars and public policy officials alike. General readers; upper-division undergraduates and above. — A. R. Sanderson, University of Chicago

Crosby, Faye J.  Affirmative action is dead: long live affirmative action.  Yale, 2004.  331p bibl index afp ISBN 0-300-10129-5, $30.00. Reviewed in 2004dec CHOICE.
42-2512  HF5549  2003-19187 CIP 

Crosby (Univ. of California, Santa Cruz) asserts that Americans are ambivalent about affirmative action, and explores possible rationales for that ambivalence. With the detailed documentation and critical commentary characteristic of an empirical psychologist, Crosby questions whether affirmative action is fair to all; is there a trade-off between justice and diversity? Is all screening for competence implicitly unfair to both losers and winners? Is generalized misunderstanding of affirmative action responsible for its limited effectiveness? Is it just “semantics versus substance”? On the other hand, does affirmative action work, do its benefits outweigh its costs? Relevant literature suggests it does indeed “work,” but affirmative action may be causing significant damage to the American psyche through stigmatization and generation of perceptions of unjustified preferential treatment on the basis of race and gender. Although “the nondiscriminatory ideal to which so many Americans feel a real and abiding commitment” is genuine, the author observes that antagonism toward and suspicion of affirmative action result from the fact that however infatuated Americans may be with justice, subtleties and nuances are not for them. Justice must be simply defined. Crosby contributes a carefully crafted, significant reminder that eternal vigilance has been and always will be the price of liberty. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All public and academic levels/libraries. — L. Braude, formerly, SUNY Fredonia 

Deslippe, Dennis.  Protesting affirmative action: the struggle over equality after the civil rights revolution.  Johns Hopkins, 2012.  282p bibl index afp; ISBN 9781421403588, $55.00. Reviewed in 2012sep CHOICE.
50-0580  HF5549  2011-19911 CIP 

Deslippe (Franklin and Marshall College) examines resistance to affirmative action in the years leading up to the Supreme Court’s Bakke case. According to the author, affirmative action opposition before Bakke came from three sources: liberal labor unionists, colorblind liberals, and colorblind conservatives. The three groups suffered from a lack of unity that diluted their strength and capacity to be effective. Deslippe argues that colorblind conservatism gradually eclipsed labor liberalism and colorblind liberalism in the second half of the 1970s due to the inability of affirmative action opponents to gain a foothold in the Democratic Party. He notes that in the 1970s, claims of reverse discrimination came from two kinds of employment–unionized labor and higher education employment and admissions. He focuses extensively on two fascinating case studies helpful to understanding affirmative action resistance: the Supreme Court case DeFunis v. Odegaard, which involved law school enrollment, and the Detroit Police Department, where white police officers fought a bitter battle against city leaders. The author’s coverage of both cases is superb. The monograph is a welcome examination of affirmative action opposition in the often-overlooked period before Bakke, but Deslippe often relies too heavily upon quotations, which sometimes makes his narrative difficult to follow. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Most levels/libraries. — J. M. Richards, Gordon College 

Diversity challenged: evidence on the impact of affirmative action, ed. by Gary Orfield with Michal Kurlaende.  Harvard Education Press, 2001.  307p indexes ISBN 1-891792-02-4  pbk, $24.95. Reviewed in 2002jan CHOICE.
39-3080  LC212   MARC 

This volume affirms Justice Powell’s Bakke opinion by providing the most informative collection of empirical evidence (survey databases and longitudinal data) available in one volume. Together with William J. Bowen’s The Shape of the River (CH, May’99), this volume provides the footprints of a new tradition of diversity research and scholarship, essential to combat contemporary political and legal attacks on diversity. The contributors stress the responsibility of the higher education community, including law and medical professional schools, and the academic world to develop and produce empirical research to demonstrate how diversity works. The volume examines roles higher learning institutions play in improving or harming student achievement and development. Significant findings include the contributions of diversity to the liberal arts imperative of responsible citizenship; educational benefits of diversity relative to teaching and learning; the value of the apparent natural attentiveness of female and minority faculty to employ active pedagogies; the role of peer groups as a necessary part of the curriculum; and the counterproductivity of class-based admissions policies. The volume offers a creative and groundbreaking application of a policy framework that reexamines the legal debate in the context of nonremedial affirmative action based on Bakke’s diversity rationale. Recommended for researchers/faculty, and professionals. — A. A. Sisneros, University of Illinois at Springfield 

Dobbin, Frank.  Inventing equal opportunity.  Princeton, 2009.  310p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780691137438, $35.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2009dec CHOICE.
47-2093  HD4903  2008-39007 CIP 

The confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor made clear that race remains a volatile, contentious issue in the US. Likewise, those hearings propagated the idea that “law” is some brooding, objective omnipresence accessible to suitably qualified judges. In this superb book, Dobbin (sociology, Harvard) explains the process through which white males have now become “victims” of a system intended to uplift disadvantaged groups; at the same time, it reveals the fallacy of judicial neutrality in civil rights cases. Dobbin’s thesis is that the apparatus of affirmative action was constructed in important part by personnel specialists operating in an environment of uncertain legal principles. The book’s opening chapter analyzes the “paradox of a weak state,” where power is dispersed among different levels of government and legal authority. State and federal legislatures, along with judges and administrative officials, contributed to a decentralized regime in which legal consciousness evolved simultaneously with social movements. Subsequent chapters trace the influence over the past four decades of personnel experts who stepped in to define and institutionalize an employment bureaucracy aimed at creating equal workplace opportunity. Overall, Dobbin tells a clear, well-documented, fascinating story about workplace relations. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. — R. L. Hogler, Colorado State University 

Kellough, J. Edward.  Understanding affirmative action: politics, discrimination, and the search for justice.  Georgetown University, 2006.  191p bibl index afp ISBN 1589010892  pbk, $19.95; ISBN 9781589010895  pbk, $19.95. Reviewed in 2006dec CHOICE.
44-2387  KF4755  2005-27243 CIP 

Kellough (public administration, Univ. of Georgia) has produced a concise yet thorough work on the controversial, often misunderstood topic of affirmative action. It is a topic on which he is well versed, having previously written Federal Equal Opportunity Policy and Numerical Goals and Timetables: An Impact Assessment (1989) and coedited Civil Service Reform in the States: Personnel Policy and Politics at the Sub-National Level (2006). The goal of this book is to “synthesize and summarize existing information” in order to “promote a fuller understanding” of the subject matter. In that, the author is completely successful, by covering in successive chapters the myriad definitions of affirmative action, its historical development, the rationale for and against such policies, the decisions of the courts in this arena, and the effects of affirmative action on employment and hiring patterns in the US. In an area where so much that is written is polemic, this work provides a balanced analysis and examination of a critical topic. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through practitioners. — M. W. Bowers, University of Nevada, Las Vegas 

Kranz, Rachel.  Affirmative action.  Facts on File, 2002.  296p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8160-4733-2, $45.00. Reviewed in 2003apr CHOICE.
40-4902  KF3464  2001-58595 CIP 

Kranz provides a “library in a book” on affirmative action. The history section is first-rate. It is complete and suggestive at the same time. The volume begins with the post-Civil War amendments to the Constitution leading up to current times. Kranz also includes gender-based concerns and other more current issues that affect affirmative action. The section on the legal basis of affirmative action is as complete as one provided by a civil rights lawyer. The chronology leads up to Bush’s 2000 election. Kranz offers detailed biographical sketches of important players and a well-researched bibliography. Appendixes include Supreme Court and state-based decisions critical to understanding the topic. For those who want hands-on experience with affirmative action, Kranz offers listings of organizations and bureaus to contact. A useful addition would be the inclusion of colonial North America in the history section. This book belongs in the library of all individuals or institutions seeking knowledge on any aspect of affirmative action. One could not make a better investment. Summing Up: Essential. All collections. — P. Kriese, Indiana University East 

Laird, Bob.  The case for affirmative action in university admissions.  Bay Tree, 2005.  291p bibl index ISBN 0-9720021-4-6, $26.95. Reviewed in 2006jan CHOICE.
43-2866  LC212  2004-26322 CIP 

Laird, the director of undergraduate admissions at the University of California, Berkeley, systematically examines the events and consequences of court rulings involving affirmative action in university admissions. Readers will receive an eye-opening, jaw-dropping account of events in California (Proposition 209), Michigan (Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger), Washington (Initiative 200), Texas (Hopwood case), Florida (One Florida), and Georgia (Johnson/Bogrow v. Board of Regents). Laird’s sound study makes use of his experience in higher education along with court cases, print sources, policies, and guidelines as he provides courses of action for implementing university policy on undergraduate admissions. This fact-packed piece will leave readers leery of the high courts, media, politicians, and “well-meaning” individuals. Since the majority of Americans are unwilling and/or unable to dig at the root of the problem concerning racial, ethnic, and economic inequity and inequality, affirmative action is the mechanism to reach equality. This resource guide, manual, and history text should serve as a starting point in applying the basic tenets to other institutions. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — A. A. Hodge, Buffalo State College 

Perry, Barbara A.  The Michigan affirmative action cases.  University Press of Kansas, 2007.  210p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780700615483, $35.00; ISBN 9780700615490  pbk, $16.95. Reviewed in 2008mar CHOICE.
45-4066  KF228  2007-17873 CIP 

In yet another outstanding work in the “Landmark Law Cases and American Society” series, Perry (Sweet Briar College) examines the now infamous Michigan affirmative action cases. In this riveting, easy-to-read book, the author comprehensively analyzes affirmative action law before and after the Bakke case, the denials of admission to Jennifer Gratz and Barbara Grutter by Michigan, their alliance with conservative legal groups to sue for discrimination, and the briefs and oral arguments in the US Supreme Court. Finally, Perry provides an in-depth look at the pivotal vote of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to uphold diversity as a legitimate governmental interest, while at the same time indicating that the power of government in pursuing diversity was not limitless. This well-written book is useful for anyone interested in civil rights and liberties or education law. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels. — M. W. Bowers, University of Nevada, Las Vegas 

Pincus, Fred L.  Reverse discrimination: dismantling the myth.  L. Rienner, 2003.  183p bibl index afp ISBN 1-58826-101-8, $49.95; ISBN 1-58826-203-0  pbk, $19.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2004feb CHOICE.
41-3724  JC599  2003-41425 CIP 

Pincus (sociology, Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County) presents a must-read, pathbreaking empirical analysis that effectively refutes the contemporary contention that reverse discrimination is a significant obstacle for white men. His book includes an exploratory case study, by way of interviews of alleged victims of reverse discrimination, unpublished FEOC data, federal appeals court case analysis, and excellent literature review of supporters and critics of affirmative action. Pincus presents hypotheses where findings challenge the rhetoric that the American legal system is fixed against white male progress, refutes color- and gender-blind ideologies, introduces the concept of reduced opportunity, and engages in an admirable effort in distinguishing goals from quotas. Pincus criticizes schools and media for an incomplete education and inaccuracy respectively, and he entertains an antiaffirmative action activist in a relatively heated dialogue. The volume, however, unrealistically turns to politicians and white men as vanguards leading the battle for achieving both equal opportunity and results. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, faculty, professionals, and policymakers. — A. A. Sisneros, University of Illinois at Springfield

Schmidt, Peter.  Color and money: how rich white kids are winning the war over college affirmative action.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.  263p index ISBN 1-4039-7601-5, $24.95; ISBN 9781403976017, $24.95. Reviewed in 2008jul CHOICE.
45-6452  LC213  2007-7039 CIP 

This is a welcome addition to the literature on the democratic promise of American higher education. Schmidt argues that rather than increase opportunities for social mobility, elite American universities largely reproduce existing patterns of privilege. This argument fits within a long tradition of analysis, certainly running from Michael Katz’s The Irony of Early School Reform (CH, Nov’01, 39-1706), published 40 years ago, to Daniel Golden’s fine The Price of Admission (2006). Schmidt structures his investigation around two key questions: who should get into selective colleges and universities, and who actually does? Affirming what has long been known, he finds that a child of America’s rich has a 25 times greater chance of someday enrolling in a highly selective college than does a poor child. Affirmative action does not mitigate against these biases. Wealthy white kids “are the population most overrepresented on campuses, especially among those who could not have gotten in without the bar being lowered.” In the face of this reality, affirmative action creates only the illusion of social mobility and equal opportunity. The result, Schmidt argues, is that blind faith in meritocracy and in the promise of education as a pathway to social mobility remains a national myth. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. — D. R. Imig, University of Memphis 

Sterba, James P.  Affirmative action for the future.  Cornell, 2009.  131p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780801446078, $49.95; ISBN 9780801475917  pbk, $49.95. Reviewed in 2010aug CHOICE.
47-7155  KF4755  2009-7763 CIP 

Sterba (philosophy, Univ. of Notre Dame) has written a concise, timely analysis of affirmative action. His book nicely summarizes the continuing existence of discrimination based on race and sex, and provides a very useful legal history of race and sex-based affirmative action. Perhaps the book’s biggest contribution is Sterba’s expanded definition of affirmative action as a policy of “favoring qualified women, minority, or economically disadvantaged candidates over qualified men, nonminority, or economically advantaged candidates respectively.” The author’s expanded definition also specifies several immediate and ultimate goals of affirmative action policies. Sterba then systematically defends outreach, remedial, and diversity affirmative action, and addresses objections to both remedial and diversity affirmative action. Overall, much of what Sterba presents is not necessarily new, but his expanded definition of affirmative action, one he suggests that both opponents and supporters could agree on, is a welcome addition to this continuing debate. Further, this book could easily be assigned in a wide variety of undergraduate courses. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. — N. Kraus, University of Wisconsin–River Falls

Stohr, Greg.  A black and white case: how affirmative action survived its greatest legal challenge.  Bloomberg Press, 2004.  333p index afp ISBN 1-57660-170-6, $26.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2005sep CHOICE.
43-0624  KF228  2004-9630 CIP 

Seldom does a book of its genre match the quality of Gideon’s Trumpet, Anthony Lewis’s 1964 account of a Florida felony defendant imprisoned without counsel. Stohr, the Supreme Court reporter for Bloomberg News, comes very close in his fascinating, insightful A Black and White Case. In the most important higher education affirmative action litigation since Bakke (1978), the Supreme Court in 2003 let stand 5-4 a narrowly tailored affirmative action process used by the University of Michigan Law School while invalidating 6-3 a more broad-ranging program implemented by that university for undergraduate admissions. Principal engineer of the Grutter v. Bollinger (law school) decision was centrist Sandra Day O’Connor, whose role was somewhat like that of master legal architect Lewis Powell in Bakke. O’Connor and the Court left in place the basic structure created in Bakke and assured a place for “race-based admissions … for at least another generation.” Commendably balanced–the author exposits the importance and values of affirmative action, but also chronicles failed dreams of rejected nonminority applicants–the book acquaints the reader with the key participants and traces the litigation from original jurisdiction to appeals court to the highest court of the land. Noteworthy is Stohr’s presentation of coalition building for judicial lobbying through amicus briefs. A Black and White Case would be a valuable resource for courses in public or constitutional law. Summing Up: Recommended. All library collections. — J. D. Gillespie, Presbyterian College 

Wood, Peter.  Diversity: the invention of a concept.  Encounter Books, 2003.  351p bibl index afp ISBN 1-893554-62-7, $24.95. Reviewed in 2003oct CHOICE.
41-1259  E184  2002-29992 CIP 

Wood (anthropology, Boston Univ.) distinguishes between what he calls the “real” diversity of social life and the “artificial” diversity movement, which, since the 1970s, has advocated preferential treatment of individuals based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and so forth. Wood critiques racial- and gender-based quotas in college admissions and in hiring. He illustrates the extent of diversity-linked identity politics characteristic of religion, entertainment, business and marketing, and on university campuses. He believes that the US is indeed one culture, a “melting pot” and not a “salad bowl,” and that diversity is an illusion, an ideal that expresses a vision of society in which people divide themselves into separate groups and demand compensatory social privileges based on injustices of the past. Wood argues that far from fostering tolerance and respect, affirmative action policies and multicultural programs undercut the principles of fairness, equity, individual merit, and ability, and are a form of systematic injustice, essentially dehumanizing and discriminatory. He concludes that the diversity movement promotes bigotry and reverse discrimination and, as an ideology and political doctrine, is misguided, illegitimate, and unfortunate. This book contributes to the ongoing debate about affirmative action and will interest those who support as well as oppose this public policy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — D. A. Chekki, University of Winnipeg 

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