Defending Diversity: Affirmative Action at the University of Michigan

The Supreme Court's 2003 decision upholding the affirmative action program at the University of Michigan has cast great public attention on the policy used by that university to maintain diversity in its classrooms. In this collection of essays, prominent faculty at the university offer historic legal and social context for the policy and its context in the overall national debate about value and efficacy of affirmative action. Earl Lewis, graduate school dean, begins by looking at the historical quest for genuine racial equality at the university and the preexisting foundational basis for the admissions policy. Jeffrey Lehman, dean of the law school, explores the changing language of diversity and the competing values of colorblindness versus integration. His essay is particularly valuable for its analysis of Justice Powell's expansion on the value of diversity in education to include democratic ideals in shaping our national identity. Readers interested in broad historical and social analyses of affirmative action will appreciate this book. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved