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Freedom Book of the Month for December, 2003:
"Diversity: The Invention of a Concept"
by Peter Wood
Encounter Books, 2003, hardcover, 351 pp.
Here's a good psychological-type question for you. What do these things -- affirmative action bake sales; Wellesley College; the Supreme Court; and the increasing failure of America's public schools to educate students -- all have in common? Armed with a good knowledge of current events and some shrewd guessing, one could likely get the answer within five tries. If you've already read December's Freedom Book of the Month, it's a no-brainer.
The common thread is diversity, as Peter Wood demonstrates in his excellent book Diversity: The Invention of a Concept. In the book, he distinguishes between the dictionary definition and the politically correct one by italicizing the word when he means the PC view (which I'll follow throughout this review). Doing so may seem unnecessary and aimed at highlighting an artificial distinction, but after reading Diversity most readers will probably agree with the necessity of distinguishing between today's vapid meaning and the word's once-useful definition as "the quality, state, or instance of being different".
I can imagine that even some libertarians would object that our culture is in fact celebrating differentness in wanting women, Amerinds, Muslims, Asians, and others to be recognized for their contributions to American society and culture. If that's what were truly going on by preaching and mandating diversity, we would be celebrating real diversity, but Wood knows better. Further, he lifts the veil off diversity that many social meddlers would rather we not even notice, much less peek behind. What he reveals, in twelve engaging chapters, is an ideology that is ostensibly about differentness, yet works very hard to put all individuals into cramped little boxes with neat, tidy labels.
Wood, an anthropologist, begins by examining western Europe's explorations and inevitable interactions with individuals and cultures that were very different from western society. Extensive quotations from explorers' narratives are surely a source of mortification to the PC diversiphile who mistakenly thinks the book only reaches back to the 1960s when the U.S. began its social experimentation in earnest. Wood's journey proceeds through decades and diversity arenas, with intriguing stops along the way. For example, Wood asserts that Darwin is in part responsible for our fascination with diversity, by placing biological diversity at the center of his theorizing. Wood's discussion of diversity in the arts and business is at turns sadly recognizable, penetratingly insightful, and liberally embellished with a dry wit that often surfaces in unexpected ways.
So, how did we get from Darwin and the importance of diversity for life to affirmative action bake sales, where college students are threatened because they parody the Supreme-Court sanctioned admissions practices of their schools by charging different prices according to the buyer's race, sex, and ethnicity? How can Wellesley College -- an all-female university -- proudly boast that it's "one of the most diverse colleges in the nation" when it refuses to even consider any male applicant? Why have educators allowed themselves to get so caught up in the affirmation of diversity that learning is shunted aside for feel-good programs that dumb all students down? Wood answers all these questions, and many more, in his thorough, penetrating, but very clear and readable style.
Wood shows, through examples and by his deft touch at highlighting its sometimes subtle egregiousness, that while diversity has roots in genuine differences among humans, it ultimately seeks to squash individual differences. The fundamental paradox Wood identifies is this: while diversity is good between groups, it appears to be unthinkable within groups (hence the media's continued "overlooking" of most conservative African Americans, for example). Diversity also elevates feelings over thinking, in part by serving up feel-good imagery such as building bridges or creating coalitions -- not noticing differences at the same time we're supposed to track those differences to make sure every group is fairly represented. Most importantly, it is an oppressor of true diversity, and the spirit of American individuality; as Wood described it, diversity is "a closed loop of thought and experience .... [that] seeks to explain away rather than to explain inconvenient facts." (p. 307, italics in original).
Peter Wood offers an examination of an increasingly important social construct that is remarkable in both its scope and its depth. Diversity: The Invention of a Concept offers academic coverage, an often amusing style, and is so well presented that diversiphiles who pick it up are unlikely to be able to put it down, even as they fume about the goring of their favorite ox. It's genuinely difficult to imagine a better treatment of such a complex concept.
, current price $17.50
More book information for December 2003
edited by Sunni Maravillosa
November 2003: A Drug War Carol by Susan W Wells and Scott Bieser
October 2003: Healing Our World in an Age of Aggression by Mary J Ruwart
September 2003: Hecate's Glory by Karen Michalson
August 2003: The Bias Against Guns by John R Lott Jr
July 2003: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
June 2003: Eco-nomics by Richard L. Stroup
May 2003: The Worm in the Apple by Peter Brimelow
April 2003: Shattered Dreams by NCPPR staff
March 2003: The Rule of Lawyers by Walter K. Olson
February 2003: Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths, edited by Ronald Bailey
Freedom Book of the Year 2002: The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz
December 2002: Blood of the Roses, by Alex Gabbard
November 2002: The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, by Ludwig von Mises
October 2002: The Haunted Air, by F. Paul Wilson
September 2002: Lead Astray and Out of Bounds, Out of Control by Peter Samuel and James V. DeLong respectively
August 2002: Boston's Gun Bible II by Boston T. Party
July 2002: Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan
June 2002: Net Assets by Carl Bussjaeger
May 2002: The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz
April 2002: Toward Liberty: The Idea that is Changing the World edited by David Boaz
March 2002: Liberty for Women edited by Wendy McElroy
February 2002: The State vs. the People by Aaron Zelman and Claire Wolfe
Freedom Book of the Year, 2001: Hope by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith
January 2002: Death by Gun Control by Aaron Zelman and Richard W. Stevens
December 2001: The American Zone by L. Neil Smith
November 2001: Ayn Rand and Business by Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni
October 2001: Junk Science Judo by Steven J. Milloy
September 2001: Jonathan Gullible by Ken Schoolland
August 2001: Hope by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
July 2001: Dissenting Electorate edited by Wendy McElroy and Carl Watner
June 2001: Tethered Citizens by Sheldon Richman
May 2001: Lever Action by L. Neil Smith
April 2001: The Cato Handbook for Congress from the Cato Institute
March 2001: The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley
February 2001: Crypto by Steven Levy
January 2001: Total Freedom by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Freedom Book of the Year 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
December 2000: The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto
November 2000: Escape from Leviathan by J.C. Lester
October 2000: The Art of Political War by David Horowitz
September 2000: An Enemy of the State by Justin Raimondo
August 2000: The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell
July 2000: A Generation Divided by Rebecca Klatch
June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman
May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben
March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand
February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler
January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood
Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz
November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy
September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe
July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant
May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz
April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille
March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary
February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
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