Getting Under the Skin of “Diversity” is a major achievement. It is the definitive answer to Bowen and Bok’s celebrated defense of racial preferences in higher education, The Shape of the River, and the one book that you need to read to find your way through the luxuriant forest of rationalizations for privileging race in college admissions. Purdy, one of the lawyers who represented the plaintiffs in the Gratz and Grutter cases, understands the pro-preference side’s core arguments (as well as its dodges, evasions, and occasional mendacities) like no one else. His response in Getting Under the Skin of “Diversity” is Ciceronian in its combination of cool mastery of the facts with deep moral urgency.

Discounted from $16.95 retail to $13.95 + $5.00 shipping = $18.95 total.