Customer Reviews

A Black and White Case: How Affirmative Action Survived Its Greatest Legal Challenge

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This is an excellent book.

Whether or not we choose to acknowledge it, every student who has entered an American university over the past 50 years is a product of the affirmative action and diversity policies of our nation's education system. The U. of Michigan case that is the heart of "A Black and White Case" is a landmark ruling that impacts the admission policy of every U.S. university. The issues described in this book are extremely important to each of us as citizens. Everyone interested in the American higher education system sould read this book.

Greg Stohr provides an incredibly balanced account of the highly charged issue of race-based admissions policies. Mr. Stohr also does an excellent job of taking very complicated legal facts and analysis and turning them into a fast-moving story that non-legal scholars can follow and understand. This is the most important legal book I have read in several years. It is also a terrific read. I highly recommend this new author.

Stohr's book reminded me of an old television program hosted by Walter Cronkite. It reenacted significant events in history and he always ended it by saying, "You were there." I felt as though I had been behind the scenes as those involved with the two affirmative action cases worked for victory. Stohr explains the legal terms clearly without being condescending. He delves into the personalities and the politics which determine the outcomes. I especially enjoyed his coverage of the Supreme Court. Stohr is an excellent, fair minded reporter.

"A Black and White Case" provides a comprehensive history of affirmative action of value to anyone interested in race in America. As the subtitle ("How Affirmative Action Survived its Greatest legal Challenge") suggests, Stohr tends to favor the proponents of affirmative action. At the same time, however, he shows sympathy and insight into its opponents. For example, Stohr's portrait of Carl Cohen -- the Michigan philosophy professor who first unearthed Michigan's statistics on affirmative action -- reveals that the intellectuals behind the recent challenges come from backgrounds far from the mainstream of the conservative movement.

Stohr also presents an account of the Supreme Court that in many ways outshines that of Bob Woodward's and Carl Bernstein's in The Brethren. In contrast to Woodward and Bernstein, Stohr lacks Woodward and Bernstein's instinctive hostility to the Court's right wing.

Finally, Stohr does an admirable job tying together chacters and events covering a broad scope of time and space into a book with suprisingly strong narrative force. Shelby Foote once said that in writing, plot is the last thing that a writer masters, if he masters it at all. Stohr succeeds in this important respect.