The Lazlo Letters
Author: Don Novello
In letters to stars, dignitaries, and chairmen of the country's most powerful organizations, Don Novello's alter ego Lazlo Toth pestered his victims for photographs, offered outlandish advice, fired off strange inquiries, and more. The strangest part? Practically everyone answered, leaving Toth with a hilarious collection of outlandish correspondence unmatched in the history of American letters.
The Lazlo Letters contains nearly 100 notes to public figures, including then-President Nixon, Vice President Ford ("I've been Vice President of a lot of organizations myself, so I know how you feel."), Bebe Rebozo, Lester Maddox, Earl Butz, and America's top business leaders. The replies, says the author, "classic examples of American politeness."
In an on-going correspondence with the White House, Toth suggests everything from ridiculously corny jokes for the President to use, to a campaign song sung to the tune of "Tea for Two." He asks the president of a bubble bath company just how to use the product, as the packaging instructions specifically state to "keep dry."
"No matter how absurd my letter was, no matter how much I ranted and raved, they always answered," reports the author. "Many of these replies are beautiful examples of pure public relations nonsense." One is not: columnist James Kilpatrick has a lone sentiment for Toth-"Nuts to You!" 247,000 copies in print.
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The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions
Author: William G Bowen
This is the book that has forever changed the debate on affirmative action in America. The Shape of the River is the most far-reaching and comprehensive study of its kind. It brings a wealth of empirical evidence to bear on how race-sensitive admissions policies actually work and clearly defines the effects they have had on over 45,000 students of different races. Its conclusions mark a turning point in national discussions of affirmative action--anything less than factual evidence will no longer suffice in any serious debate of this vital question.
Glenn Loury's new foreword revisits the basic logic behind race-sensitive policies, asserting that since individuals use race to conceptualize themselves, we must be conscious of race as we try to create rules for a just society. Loury underscores the need for confronting opinion with fact so we can better see the distinction between the "morality of color-blindness" and the "morality of racial justice."
Across the country, in courts, classrooms, and the media, Americans are deeply divided over the use of race in admitting students to universities. Yet until now the debate over race and admissions has consisted mainly of clashing opinions, uninformed by hard evidence. This work, written by two of the country's most respected academic leaders, intends to change that. It brings a wealth of empirical evidence to bear on how race-sensitive admissions policies actually work and what effects they have on students of different races.
The authors are the economist William G. Bowen, President of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and former President of Princeton University, and Derek Bok, former President of Harvard University andformer Dean of the Harvard Law School. Bowen and Bok argue that we can pass an informed judgment on the wisdom of race-sensitive admissions only if we understand in detail the college careers and the subsequent lives of students-or, to use a metaphor they take from Mark Twain, if we learn the shape of the entire river. The heart of the book is thus an unprecedented study of the academic, employment, and personal histories of more than 45,000 students of all races who attended academically selective universities between the 1970s and the early 1990s.
The study reveals how much race-sensitive admissions increase the likelihood that blacks will be admitted to selective universities and demonstrates what effect the termination of these policies would have on the number of minority students at different kinds of selective institutions. The authors go on to determine how well black students have performed academically in comparison to their white classmates, what success they have had in their subsequent careers, and how actively they have participated in civic and community affairs. The authors also explore the views expressed by graduates of selective colleges about the value of their education and the contributions that a diverse student body has made to their capacity to live and work with people of other races.
In the final chapters, Bowen and Bok relate their findings to the current debate about the wisdom of race-sensitive admissions. They consider whether critics are correct in claiming that such policies harm their intended beneficiaries by forcing minority students to compete with academically superior classmates. They examine alternative policies that have been proposed to increase diversity without relying explicitly on race in the admissions process. They end by reflecting on the thorny question of whether the concept of "merit" is compatible with a deliberate effort to achieve a racially diverse student body.
Authoritative, powerfully argued, and elegantly written, this book is a landmark work in one of the most important debates in recent American history. In the words of Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy, "The Shape of the River should be essential reading for anyone seeking a dependable guide through the morass of competing claims that obscure from public attention the questions that need to be posed and the answers that need to be assessed."
Richard D. Kahlenberg
The Shape of the River makes a business case for diversity, a case that is chilling in its emphasis on efficiency over fairness. Maybe this book will help show that today's affirmative action is not the liberal program that liberals believe it to be. -- Washington Monthly
New York Times
No study of this magnitude has been attempted before. Its findings provide a strong rationale for opposing curent efforts to demolish race-sensitive policies in colleges across the country. . . .The evidence collected flatly refutes many of the misimpressions of affirmative-action opponents.
Los Angeles Times
A compelling new book. . .demonstrates why affirmative action programs can be good for the country. . .The authors prove with facts, not anecdotes, that affirmative action works.
Newsweek
The most ambitious and authoritative study to date of the effects of affirmative action in higher education.
Ronald Dworkin
Offers much more comprehensive statistics and much more sophisticated analysis than has been available before. . . .Impressionistic and anecdotal evidence will no longer suffice. -- The New York Review of Books
The New York Times
No study of this magnitude has been attempted before. Its findings provide a strong rationale for opposing curent efforts to demolish race-sensitive policies in colleges across the country. . . .The evidence collected flatly refutes many of the misimpressions of affirmative-action opponents.
Newsweek
The most ambitious and authoritative study to date of the effects of affirmative action in higher education.
Los Angeles Times
A compelling new book. . .demonstrates why affirmative action programs can be good for the country. . .The authors prove with facts, not anecdotes, that affirmative action works.
David Karen
. . .Bowen and Bok have performed a major service for advocates of affirmative action. . . .[and] have also written a book that underliens the degree to which colleges are useful investments in human capital. -- The Nation
David Gergen
The most comprehensive study ever done of affirmative action in higher education.. .it demands the attention of anyone who cares about American universities. -- U.S. News & World Report
What People Are Saying
Garry Wills
An extensive and intensive study. . .finds that. . .what is good for business. . .is good for society, too -- good for all of us. This report may, at last, make that fact evident even to the most obtuse (Garry Wills is a syndicated columnist).
Robert M. Solow
This important book is a calm, expert, analytical study of race-sensitive college admissions, and what happens afterwards. . . .It tells us many things we didn't know, because untill now there was no way to know them (Robert M. Solow is M.I.T. Noel Laureate in Economics).
Bill Bradley
An invaluable resource for those interested in American higher education and, more generally, race in America.
Randall Kennedy
Written by two of the most respected figures in higher education, The Shape of the River offers the public what has long been needed: a large dose of crucial, unvarnished fact about affirmative action. -- Harvard Law School
Table of Contents:
| List of Figures | ||
| List of Tables | ||
| Preface | ||
| Ch. 1 | Historical Context | 1 |
| Ch. 2 | The Admissions Process and "Race-Neutrality" | 15 |
| Ch. 3 | Academic Outcomes | 53 |
| Ch. 4 | Advanced Study: Graduate and Professional Degrees | 91 |
| Ch. 5 | Employment, Earnings, and Job Satisfaction | 118 |
| Ch. 6 | Civic Participation and Satisfaction with Life | 155 |
| Ch. 7 | Looking Back: Views of College | 193 |
| Ch. 8 | Diversity: Perceptions and Realities | 218 |
| Ch. 9 | Informing the Debate | 256 |
| Ch. 10 | Summing Up | 275 |
| App. A | The College and Beyond Database | 291 |
| App. B. Notes on Methodology | 336 | |
| App. C | Earnings in Relation to Advanced Degrees, Sector of Employment, and Occupation | 362 |
| App. D. Additional Tables | 375 | |
| References | 451 | |
| Index | 461 |
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