Invisible victims : white males and the crisis of affirmative action /

Lynch's passionately argued book asks: How did controversial social policy that lacked public support nonetheless become institutionalized? The social policy Lynch examines is affirmative action. Lynch uses sociological concepts to account for the persistence of affirmative action, but also blames sociology for contributing to its support. Thus, his book is as much an indictment of sociology as it is an indictment of how our country has recently dealt with overcoming discrimination. The book contains seven tables, synopses of interviews with 32 white males, six appendixes, a list of references, and a combined subject-author index. The fascinating appendixes include "reverse discrimination accounts," the interview schedule used in the research, and documents about affirmative action procedures in colleges and universities. Throughout the book, Lynch illustrates his points with quotations from people he interviewed or from newspaper clippings and court records. Lynch condemns the sloppy, fearful thinking that has converted affirmative action into quotas and that has kept social researchers shying away from this explosive topic. College, university, and public libraries. -S. Reinharz, Brandeis University