Diversity : the invention of a concept / Peter Wood.
"In just a few years, diversity has become America's most visible cultural ideal. Corporations alter their recruitment and hiring policies in the name of a diverse workforce. Universities institute new admissions procedures in the name of a diverse student body. Presidents choose their m...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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San Francisco :
Encounter Books,
[2003]
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "In just a few years, diversity has become America's most visible cultural ideal. Corporations alter their recruitment and hiring policies in the name of a diverse workforce. Universities institute new admissions procedures in the name of a diverse student body. Presidents choose their major appointees in the name of a diverse cabinet. And what diversity proponents have in mind, Peter Wood argues, is not the dictionary meaning of the word - variety and multiplicity - but a new and often narrow kind of conformity." "Whether as prescribed numerial outcome or as the celebration of cultural difference, diversity, according to Wood, is now a deadening force in American life, a cliche that promotes group stereotypes and undermines any real diversity of ideas and individuals." "In this learned and entertaining book, Wood has undertaken nothing less than the biography of a concept. Drawing on classic texts of history and anthropology, science and religion, he shows that - contrary to the self-flattering assumptions of our time - Americans of earlier eras often met diversty open-mindedly, with a combination of awe, delight and curiosity."--BOOK JACKET. |
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| Physical Description: | viii, 351 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 1893554627 9781893554627 |