A quarter-century after the enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, its legacy remains controversial. The statutory language intended to ensure equal opportunity to all individuals is now interpreted as authorizing both public and private employers to adopt preferential policies that benefit designated groups based on race and gender. Much the same transformation has occurred in federal contract programs: President Kennedy's executive order that required equal employment opportunity is now understood as mandating minority hiring with numerical goals tantamount to quotas. Herman Belz's "Equality Transformed: A Quarter-Century of Affirmative Action "traces this transformation of equality and how it was brought about by courts, regulatory agencies, and activists. The early champions of civil rights sought to eradicate impediments to advancement for the downtrodden; the ultimate aim was to create a truly colorblind society. Over the years, this goal, while still professed, became even more elusive. Preferences, goals, and timetables - "temporary" means for the attainment of a nondiscriminatory society - seemed to undermine that noble quest. "Equality Transformed "provides a textured history of affirmative action and its effects upon race relations and our democratic, egalitarian ideals. In recent years, under the impetus of the Reagan Justice Department, the Supreme Court has backed away, however hesitantly, from its earlier sympathy towards race-conscious remedies and preferential treatment. Belz's analysis of recent Supreme Court cases and their antecedents allows us to better understand both the tensions in our society and the fury that the Court has triggered with its recent civil rights pronouncements. Belz makes a strong case for hewing to a forward-looking rather than a backward-looking approach to eradicating discrimination. Anyone interested in the history, law, theory, or morality of affirmative action in employment will find "Equality Transformed "invaluable.

Comprising essays by eleven up-and-coming scholars from across the globe, this collection of essays provides an unparalleled snapshot of new work in political philosophy using such diverse methodologies as critical theory and social choice theory, historical analysis and conceptual analysis.

Petitions and briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.

First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This is the first international and inter-disciplinary social science Handbook on health and medicine. Five years in the making, and building on the insights and advice of an international editorial board, the book brings together world-class figures to provide an indispensable, comprehensive resource book on social science, health and medicine. Pinpointing the focal issues of research and debate in one volume, the material is organized into three sections: social and cultural frameworks of analysis; the experience of health and illness; and health care systems and practices. Each section consists of specially commissioned chapters designed to examine the vital conceptual and methodological practice and policy issues. Readers recei