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.