Synopses & Reviews
Includes bibliographical references (p. 311-335) and index.
Synopsis
Writing with wit and erudition, Wood has undertaken in this entertaining book nothing less than the life story of an idea. Drawing on his experience as a social scientist, he traces the birth and evolution of "diversity, " and shows how it sprawls across politics, law, education, business, entertainment, personal aspiration, religion and the arts as an encompassing claim about human identity. It asserts the principle that people are, above all else, members of social groups and products of the historical experiences of those groups. In this sense, Wood argues, diversity is profoundly anti-individualist and at odds with America's older ideals of liberty and equality.
Synopsis
Peter Wood traces the birth and evolution of diversity, illuminating how it came to sprawl across politics, law, education, business, entertainment, personal aspiration, religion and the arts as an encompassing claim about human identity.