Affirmative Action Bibliography


The literature on affirmative action is large. Some of the best known articles have been collected in anthologies. Collections like Equality and Preferential Treatment edited by Cohen or Reverse Discrimination edited by Barry Gross include a range of views. These book provide an excellent starting point for understanding the issues and arguments. Full length studies like those of Taylor or Thernstrom focus on one aspect of the debate in detail. All of these books are clear and well argued. In many cases they address each other's arguments. The following list includes a sampling of sources for you to use in developing your own views.

Altschiller, Donald. Ed. Affirmative Action. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1991.

Bell, Derrick. And We Are Not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice. Basic Books, Inc., 1987.

------------------. Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism. New York: BasicBooks, 1992.

Bittker, Boris I. The Case for Black Reparations. New York: Vintage Books, 1973.

Blanchard, F. A. and F. J. Crosby. Ed. Affirmative Action in Perspective. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Block, W. E. and Walker, M.A. ed. Discrimination, Affirmative Action, and Equal Opportunity. Vancouver: The Fraser Institute, 1982.

Boxill, Bernard. Blacks and Social Justice. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Allanheld, 1984.

---------------------. "The Morality of Preferential Hiring." Philosophy & Public Affairs, 7 (Spring, 1978), p. 246-268.

Cahn, Steven M. Affirmative Action and the University: A Philosophical Inquiry. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993.

Carter, Stephen L. Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby. New York: Basic Books, 1991.

Clayton, Susan D. and Faye J. Crosby. Justice, Gender, and Affirmative Action. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992.

Cohen, Marshall, Thomas Nagel, and Thomas Scanlon. Ed. Equality and Preferential Treatment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.

Curry, George E. Ed. The Affirmative Action Debate. Reading: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1996.

Dworaczek, Marian. Affirmative Action and Minorities: A Bibliography. Monticello, IL: Vance Bibliographies, 1988.

Epstein, Richard A. Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Ezorsky, Gertrude. Racism & Justice: The Case for Affirmative Action. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.

Fried, Charles. Order & Law: Arguing the Reagan Revolution --a Firsthand Account. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.

Fullinwider, Robert. The Reverse Discrimination Controversy: A Moral and Legal Analysis. Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield, 1980.

Glazer, Nathan. Affirmative Discrimination. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1975.

Glendon, Mary Ann. Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse. New York: The Free Press, 1991.

Goldman, Alan. Justice and Reverse Discrimination. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.

Greene, Kathanne. Affirmative Action and Principles of Justice. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989.

Gross, Barry, ed. Reverse Discrimination. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1977.

Jencks, Christopher. Rethinking Social Policy: Race, Poverty, and the Underclass. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.

May, Larry. The Morality of Groups: Collective Responsibility, Group-Based Harm, and Corporate Rights. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1987.

Mills, Nicolaus, ed. Debating Affirmative Action: Race, Gender, Ethnicity, and the Politics of Inclusion. New York: Dell Publishing, 1994.

Player, Mack A. Federal Law of Employment Discrimination in a Nutshell. 3rd ed. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1992.

Rosenfeld, Michel. Affirmative Action and Justice: A Philosophical and Constitutional Inquiry. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.

Sowell, Thomas. Civil rights: Rhetoric or Reality?. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1984.

----------------------. Preferential Policies: An International Perspective. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1990.

Steele, Shelby. The Content of Our Character. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990.

Taylor, Jared. Paved with Good Intentions: The Failure of Race Relations in Contemporary America. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1992.

Thernstrom, Abigail M. Whose votes count? Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987.

Thomson, Judith Jarvis. The Realm of Rights. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990.

Urofsky, Melvin I. A Conflict of Rights: The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991.

Vetterling-Bragin, Frederick Elliston, and Jane English, ed. Feminism and Philosophy. Totowa: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1977.

Wilson, William Julius. The Declining significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

----------------------------- The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.