The Color of Law - by Richard Rothstein

About the Book

Longlisted for the National Book Award

This "powerful and disturbing history" exposes how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide (New York Times Book Review).

Book Synopsis

New York Times Bestseller - Notable Book of the Year - Editors' Choice Selection
One of Bill Gates' "Amazing Books" of the Year
One of Publishers Weekly's 10 Best Books of the Year
Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction
An NPR Best Book of the Year
Winner of the Hillman Prize for Nonfiction
Gold Winner - California Book Award (Nonfiction)
Finalist - Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History)
Finalist - Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize

This "powerful and disturbing history" exposes how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide (New York Times Book Review).

Review Quotes

Essential... Rothstein persuasively debunks many contemporary myths about racial discrimination.... Only when Americans learn a common--and accurate--history of our nation's racial divisions, he contends, will we then be able to consider steps to fulfill our legal and moral obligations. For the rest of us, still trying to work past 40 years of misinformation, there might not be a better place to start than Rothstein's book.--Rachel M. Cohen, Slate

Masterful... The Rothstein book gathers meticulous research showing how governments at all levels long employed racially discriminatory policies to deny blacks the opportunity to live in neighborhoods with jobs, good schools and upward mobility.--Jared Bernstein, Washington Post

Rothstein's comprehensive and engrossing book reveals just how the U.S. arrived at the 'systematic racial segregation we find in metropolitan areas today, ' focusing in particular on the role of government.... This compassionate and scholarly diagnosis of past policies and prescription for our current racial maladies shines a bright light on some shadowy spaces.--Publishers Weekly [starred review]

Virtually indispensable... I can only implore anyone interested in understanding the depth of the problem to read this necessary book.--Don Rose, Chicago Daily Observer