Our politics are fraught with rancor and resentment. Decades of rising inequality and stalled mobility have fueled a populist revolt against elites. But while the pundits focus on wages and jobs, they are missing a big part of the story: social esteem, and the broader moral dimensions of our current crisis. In recent decades, mainstream politicians across the aisle - from Reagan to Obama - have offered a rhetoric of rising: everyone should be given...

Stalled social mobility and entrenched inequality give the lie to the American credo that "you can make it if you try." The consequence is a brew of anger and frustration that has fueled populist protest and extreme polarization, and led to deep distrust of both government and our fellow citizens. Michael Sandel argues that to overcome the crises that are upending our world, we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied...

"Standing on the foundations of America's promise of equal opportunity, our universities purport to "serve as engines of social mobility" and "practitioners of democracy." But as acclaimed scholar and pioneering civil rights advocate Lani Guinier argues, the merit systems that dictate the admissions practices of these institutions are functioning to select and privilege elite individuals rather than create learning communities geared to advance democratic...

Charges by Asian Americans that the top universities in the United States used quotas to limit the enrollment of Asian-American students developed into one of the most vociferous public controversies in higher education since the Bakke case. In The Retreat from Race, Dana Takagi follows the debates over Asian-American admissions at Berkeley, UCLA, Brown, Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton. She explains important developments in the politics of race:...

In this book, the author examines ethics in law enforcement, discusses how today's police officers can meet the ethical challenges of policing while fulfilling heightened demands for better security. The quandaries law-enforcement officials face on a daily basis require thoughtful deliberation and support from those in positions of authority within their organizations. In this book, the author examines the ethical questions most often raised by police...