Books

Affirmative Action in Antidiscrimination Law and Policy: An Overview and Synthesis By Samuel Leiter and William M. Leiter
Affirmative action has been and continues to be the flashpoint of America’s civil rights agenda. Yet while the affirmative action literature is voluminous, no comprehensive account of its major legal and public policy dimension exists. Samuel and William M. Leiter examine the origin and growth of affirmative action, its impact on American society, its current state, and its future anti-discrimination role, if any. Informed by several different disciplines—law, history, economics, sociology, political science, urban studies, and criminology—the text combines the relevant legal materials with analysis and commentary from a variety of experts. This even-handed presentation of the subject of affirmative action is sure to be a valuable aid to those seeking to understand the issue’s many complexities. To order online, see www.sunypress.edu.

The Source of the River:The Social Origins of Freshmen at America's Selective Colleges and Universities (2003)
By Douglas S. Massey, Camille Z. Charles, Garvey F. Lundy, and Mary J. Fischer
African Americans and Latinos earn lower grades and drop out of college more often than whites or Asians. Yet thirty years after deliberate minority recruitment efforts began, we still don't know why. In The Shape of the River, William Bowen and Derek Bok documented the benefits of affirmative action for minority students, their communities, and the nation at large. But they also found that too many failed to achieve academic success. In The Source of the River, Douglas Massey and his colleagues investigate the roots of minority underperformance in selective colleges and universities. They explain how such factors as neighborhood, family, peer group, and early schooling influence the academic performance of students from differing racial and ethnic origins and differing social classes. To order online, see www.pup.princeton.edu