Diversity: The Invention of a Concept

by Peter Wood

Diversity is America's newest cultural ideal. Corporations alter their recruitment and hiring policy in the name of a diverse workforce. Universities institute new admissions rules in the name of a diverse student body. What its proponents have in mind when they cite the compelling importance of diversity, Peter Wood argues in this elegant work, is not the dictionary meaning of the word—variety and multiplicity—but rather a set of prescribed numerical outcomes in terms of racial and ethnic makeup. Writing with wit and erudition, Wood has undertaken in this entertaining book nothing less than the biography of a concept. Drawing on his experience as a social scientist, he traces the birth and evolution of "diversity." He shows how diversity sprawls across politics, law, education, business, entertainment, personal aspiration, religion, and the arts, as an encompassing claim about human identity. It asserts the principle that people are, above all else, members of social groups and products of the historical experiences of those groups. In this sense, Wood shows, diversity is profoundly anti-individualist and at odds with America's older ideals of liberty and equality. Wood warns that as a political ideology, diversity undercuts America's long effort to overcome racial division. He shows how the ideology of diversity has propelled the Neo-racialists on the political Right as well as those on the multi-culturalist Left. But even if the diversity movement did not exacerbate racial and social division, he believes that it would be a questionable cultural ideal. As Wood points out, "Our liberty and our equality demand that we hold one another to common standards and that we reject all hierarchy based on heredity—even the hierarchy that comes about when we grant present privileges to make up for past privileges denied."

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Cultural, History

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Janine]

I was only about 30 pages into this book after a week of effort. Since I normally read about 100 pages/hour that is a little surprising. The only reason I bothered to read past the introduction is that I feel it is time to re-evaluate multiculturalism as a doctrine. This book proports to undertake the "biography of a concept" and describe the way that diversity is a "deadening force in America." Unfortunately, it is so chock full of logical inconsistencies, contradictions and absurd conclusions that I can hardly read a page without screaming at the absent author--then writing a treatise of rebuttal on cocktail napkins or receipts or whatever else is handy to vent my disgust. Wood raises one or two interesting points which are neither original nor carefully expounded. He delightfully envokes Madison's "Factions" as a divisive force but carefully ignores Mill's "tyranny of the majority". Wood is so vehement in his criticism of proportional representation it surprise me that he doesn't take on the entire House of Representatives. If this represents contemporary conservative thought, it has rendered the phrase an oxymoron.

After 20 more pages I have yelled myself hoarse and will not be finishing this self-indulgent collection of misrepresented scholarship and argumentative claptrap. Its one star is revoked.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

This guy had his head on straight and this is great concept for a book, but... he needed Mad Eye Moody as an editor, standing behind him the whole time barking, "Constant vigilance!" to keep him on task. Instead he got Trelawney. His book dithers and veers around about as badly, and his "Grims!" got boring and random by the end. A sad, sad case of failed stasis theory.

[Rachel]

I found the idea of the book interesting, and I likely generally share the author's political inclinations, but I felt that there were assertions without support.

If you can't support your reasoning with sources, it becomes conjecture and is a little weaker.

[John Hancock · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://aetherparticles.wordpress.com...

[Eva B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Dale Anderson]

This book describes the pre-cursor of DEI. This is a must-read for those wanting to understand how affirmative action programs evolved into diversityt culture and, eventually, DEI.

[The American Conservative]

'In his book Diversity: The Invention of a Concept, Peter Wood describes his pleasure as a child in Pittsburgh when visiting the city’s aviary, where birds from disparate regions of the world were all intermingled—“species whose ancestors last met when Tyrannosaurus Rex still was king.” Several years later, however, a renovation of the aviary resulted in individual exhibits, separating the birds in order to simulate natural habitat. Now one can stand in front of a window, writes Wood, “and watch 14 cockatoos sit on an authentic dead Australian tree.”'

Read the full review, "Multiculturalism Writ Large," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...

[Paul Sand · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm tired of "affirmative action". Its proponents increasingly rely on deceit and moralistic bluster, which is a sign that they lost the real debate long ago. But Peter Wood bravely wades into the fray to point out the continuing follies of the policy.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a "fun" read, per se, but it makes a compelling case for how the concept (versus the reality) of 'diversity' was created and used for ill.

[Jason]

Very helpful for critically thinking about what that buzzword "diversity" means.