The Affirmative Action Puzzle
A Living History from Reconstruction to Today
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Narrated by:
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Dan Woren
About this listen
A rich, multifaceted history of affirmative action from the Civil Rights Act of 1866 through today’s tumultuous times
From acclaimed legal historian, author of a biography of Louis Brandeis - "Remarkable" (Anthony Lewis, The New York Review of Books), "Definitive" (Jeffrey Rosen, The New Republic) - and Dissent and the Supreme Court - "Riveting" (Dahlia Lithwick, The New York Times Book Review) - a history of affirmative action from its beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to the first use of the term in 1935 with the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act (the Wagner Act) to 1961 and John F. Kennedy’s Executive Order 10925, mandating that federal contractors take "affirmative action" to ensure that there be no discrimination by "race, creed, color, or national origin" down to today’s American society.
Melvin Urofsky explores affirmative action in relation to sex, gender, and education and shows that nearly every public university in the country has at one time or another instituted some form of affirmative action plan - some successful, others not.
Urofsky traces the evolution of affirmative action through labor and the struggle for racial equality, writing of World War I and the exodus that began when some six million African Americans moved northward between 1910 and 1960, one of the greatest internal migrations in the country’s history.
He describes how Harry Truman, after becoming president in 1945, fought for Roosevelt’s Fair Employment Practice Act and, surprising everyone, appointed a distinguished panel to serve as the President’s Commission on Civil Rights, as well as appointing the first black judge on a federal appeals court in 1948 and, by executive order later that year, ordering full racial integration in the armed forces.
In this important, ambitious, far-reaching audiobook, Urofsky writes about the affirmative action cases decided by the Supreme Court: cases that either upheld or struck down particular plans that affected both governmental and private entities. We come to fully understand the societal impact of affirmative action: how and why it has helped, and inflamed, people of all walks of life; how it has evolved; and how, and why, it is still needed.
©2020 Melvin I. Urofsky (P)2020 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Comprehensive ... Urofsky deploys his legal expertise to great effect ... meticulously researched, honestly crafted.” (Orlando Patterson, The New York Times)
“Urofsky leads us to consider how law should best combat the legacies of racism, sexism, and ableism in order to open doors of opportunity to previously excluded groups. A thought-provoking read.” (Library Journal)
“Comprehensive ... A must-read for anyone interested in the history of affirmative action and its associated legal conundrums.” (Kirkus)
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Latinos have long influenced everything from electoral politics to popular culture‚ yet many people instinctively regard them as recent immigrants rather than a longstanding racial group. In Inventing Latinos‚ Laura Gomez illuminates the fascinating race-making‚ unmaking‚ and remaking of Latino identity that has spanned centuries‚ leaving a permanent imprint on how race operates in the United States today.
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mixed reaction
- By david on 09-24-21
By: Laura E. Gómez
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The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935
- By: James D. Anderson
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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James Anderson critically reinterprets the history of southern Black education from Reconstruction to the Great Depression. By placing Black schooling within a political, cultural, and economic context, he offers fresh insights into Black commitment to education, the peculiar significance of Tuskegee Institute, and the conflicting goals of various philanthropic groups, among other matters.
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Against all Odds
- By tubby on 10-21-22
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Supreme Power
- 7 Pivotal Supreme Court Decisions That Had a Major Impact on America
- By: Ted Stewart
- Narrated by: Art Allen
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author Ted Stewart explains how the Supreme Court and its nine appointed members now stand at a crucial point in their power to hand down momentous and far-ranging decisions. Today's Court affects every major area of American life, from health care to civil rights, from abortion to marriage. This fascinating book reveals the complex history of the Court as told through seven pivotal decisions.
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Polemical, downright ridiculous at times
- By Joe Igla on 11-04-17
By: Ted Stewart
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Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy
- Oxford University Press: Pivotal Moments in US History
- By: James T. Patterson
- Narrated by: Steve Anderson
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Most Americans still see Brown v. Board of Education as a triumph - but was it? James T. Patterson shrewdly explores the provocative questions that still swirl around the case. A wide range of characters animates the story, from the little-known African-Americans who dared to challenge Jim Crow with lawsuits; to Thurgood Marshall, who later became a Justice himself; to Earl Warren, who shepherded a fractured Court to a unanimous decision.
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The Fight Against Inequality
- By Marcus on 03-05-15
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Jane Crow
- The Life of Pauli Murray
- By: Rosalind Rosenberg
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 18 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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A mixed-race orphan, Murray grew up in segregated North Carolina before escaping to New York, where she attended Hunter College and became a labor activist in the 1930s. When she applied to graduate school at the University of North Carolina, where her white great-great-grandfather had been a trustee, she was rejected because of her race. She went on to graduate first in her class at Howard Law School, only to be rejected for graduate study again at Harvard University this time on account of her sex. Undaunted, Murray forged a singular career in the law.
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What a legacy!!!
- By Paul on 03-08-21
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We Are Not Yet Equal
- Understanding Our Racial Divide
- By: Carol Anderson, Tonya Bolden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Carol Anderson's White Rage took the world by storm, landing on the New York Times best seller list and best book of the year lists from New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Chicago Review of Books. It launched her as an in-demand commentator on contemporary race issues for national print and television media and garnered her an invitation to speak to the Democratic Congressional Caucus. This compelling young adult adaptation brings her ideas to a new audience.
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Great
- By JD on 07-06-20
By: Carol Anderson, and others
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Big Agenda
- President Trump's Plan to Save America
- By: David Horowitz
- Narrated by: Ian Patterson
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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One battle is over, but there are many more to come. This book is an indispensable guide to fighting the opponents of the conservative restoration. It identifies who the adversaries are, as well as their methods, motivations, and agenda, including the particular issues with which they will try to advance their destructive goal - and it lays out a strategy to defeat all of it.
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Title doesn't match content.
- By Gigi on 02-12-17
By: David Horowitz
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Supreme Disorder
- Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America's Highest Court
- By: Ilya Shapiro
- Narrated by: Fred Stella
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The brutal confirmation battles we saw over Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh are symptoms of a larger problem with our third branch of government, a problem that began long before Kavanaugh, Merrick Garland, Clarence Thomas, or even Robert Bork: the courts’ own self-corruption, aiding and abetting the expansion of federal power.
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Tremendous detail
- By Charles on 07-15-22
By: Ilya Shapiro
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A Collective Bargain
- Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy
- By: Jane McAlevey
- Narrated by: Jane McAlevey
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In A Collective Bargain, longtime labor organizer, environmental activist, and political campaigner Jane McAlevey makes the case that unions are a key institution capable of taking effective action against today’s super-rich corporate class. Since the 1930s, when unions flourished under New Deal protections, corporations have waged a stealthy and ruthless war against the labor movement. And they’ve been winning.
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Disappointing
- By Ellen on 01-26-20
By: Jane McAlevey
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The Embattled Vote in America
- From the Founding to the Present
- By: Allan J. Lichtman
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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America's political leaders have considered suffrage not a natural right but a privilege restricted by wealth, sex, race, residence, literacy, criminal conviction, and citizenship. Today, voter identification laws, political gerrymandering, registration requirements, felon disenfranchisement, and voter purges deny many millions of citizens the opportunity to express their views at the ballot box. We cannot blame the founders alone for America's embattled vote. Best-selling author Allan Lichtman notes that subsequent generations have failed to establish suffrage as a universal right.
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Old Hat ...
- By Richard D. Parker on 01-17-19
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The Conscience of a Liberal
- By: Paul Krugman
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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America emerged from Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal with strong democratic values and broadly shared prosperity. But for the past 30 years, American politics has been dominated by a conservative movement determined to undermine the New Deal's achievements. Now, the tide may be turning, and in The Conscience of a Liberal Paul Krugman, the world's most widely read economist and one of its most influential political commentators, charts the way to reform.
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Great Book!!!
- By carl801 on 12-04-07
By: Paul Krugman
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Impossible Subjects
- Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America
- By: Mae M. Ngai
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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This book traces the origins of the "illegal alien" in American law and society, explaining why and how illegal migration became the central problem in US immigration policy - a process that profoundly shaped ideas and practices about citizenship, race, and state authority in the 20th century.
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Excellent introduction to USA immigration
- By David on 03-17-23
By: Mae M. Ngai
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White Rage
- The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
- By: Carol Anderson
- Narrated by: Pamela Gibson
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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As Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in August 2014 and media commentators across the ideological spectrum referred to the angry response of African Americans as 'Black rage', historian Carol Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in the Washington Post showing that this was, instead, 'white rage at work. With so much attention on the flames,' she wrote, 'everyone had ignored the kindling.'
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Good History, Was Hoping For More Insight
- By Mike on 09-08-16
By: Carol Anderson
What listeners say about The Affirmative Action Puzzle
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-28-20
Extremely Insightful and Fairly Comprehensive
Urofsky makes his aim of remaining objective clear at the outset, and in my opinion he succeeds at showing many sides of the coin.
If you want to understand things you may not have previously considered, or if you can admit your personal perception may be skewed, this book is for you.
A must read/listen. The best book I've consumed in 2020.
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- Steven White
- 04-11-20
Big disappointment for this author
Urofsky is both a lawyer and a historian, but a large portion of this book is on topics well outside his expertise. He notes that is conflicted about affirmative action early in the book, and in the closing chapter acknowledges that the research literature can't answer important questions that people would like to know in order to evaluate "affirmative action" yet he wrote a book that often seems like it is going to give us answers about how it works, what it does, and whether it is good. This leads him to often cites this literature in misleading ways and as if it gives definitive answers to important questions. It is too bad that more of the book doesn't focus on genuine history and law, like the chapters on on the Bakke and Defunis cases and the one that is largely about the implementation and politics of early affirmative action in CUNY. There is another good chapter, mostly filled with legal analysis of gerrymandering cases, about majority-minority districts.
An illustration of this confusing and thin reviews of the evidence: he notes, correctly, that most colleges have nearly open admissions policies, including all community colleges and that because of this affirmative action is mostly only a significant factor in top tier schools. As such it is impossible that a majority or white (or black) people are impacted by affirmative action in college admissions. Yet he later cites a study that says affirmative action tripled the number of minority (or maybe Black) students in colleges.
His own policy analysis is often vague and thin and clearly not his comparative advantage. He tells us that he personally doesn't like quotas and explains that a "goal" and "target" often just means a minimum quota. I can understand that, but few organizations use hard numerical quotas or goals. They use race as a subjective "plus" factor in hiring and admissions and his description and analysis of these problems is nearly incoherent, sometimes saying that race is just "one of many factors" and sometimes emphasizing that is it is pivotal in most cases at most top schools. "One of many factors" sounds like it isn't a big deal. Pivotal, which means that the student would not have been admitted if they were white, makes it sound like a big deal. Numbers or illustrative examples here would help us understand how these systems work, but we rarely get them, just vague handwaving.
Urofsky picked a topic that had a lot of potential, but the fact that he hasn't made up his mind and that he chose to focus on areas where has no expertise hamper the book. I can't give it more than 1 star in the current form, but if you only read the chapters mentioned above it could get 3-4. The performance by Dan Woren is solid.
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