Will Classified Prove to be "2022's Most Consequential American Book?"

Forgive me for bit of own-horn tooting, but it's not every day that someone as prominent and respected as George Will calls a relative obscure academic's work "potentially 2022's most consequential American book."

In other news about Classified, I was a guest on Michael Shermer's podcast. Shermer, as readers may know, is the long-time editor of Skeptic magazine, and I'm a long-time fan.

Glenn Reynolds interviewed me for his new Substack.

C-Span's Book TV is broadcasting a talk I gave at the Cato Institute, with distinguished commenters.

I was a guest on Larry Bernstein's (no relation) "What Happens in the Next Six Minutes" podcast. Unlike many podcasts, Larry edits his carefully for length and clarity.

I wrote a short piece for Brandeis University's alumni magazine summarizing the book's thesis.

Sheldon Richman wrote a nice review praising the book for "ripping away the veil of this horrendous and ridiculous system [of racial classification."]

Richard Epstein, writing for the Claremont Review of Books (paywall), notes Classified's "basic and incontrovertible point is that the standard five-fold classification of white, black, Hispanic, Asian, or American Indians (Native Americans) is utterly useless for deciding who should get preferences in education, business, or anywhere else given a large, heterogeneous population that must be sorted into distinct, but internally disjointed groups."

And finally, Tal Fortgang in Commentary (paywall): "Though it promises an 'untold story' of racial classification in America, Bernstein's Classified delivers something much more valuable: a series of simple questions under whose scrutiny race-based classifications in American law collapse. By the end of the book, which is neither long nor densely packed with legal analysis, the notion that contemporary racial classifications have any logic, consistency, or semblance of fairness has been rendered laughable."

Comments

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Congratulations! The book most surprised me by what I had already known but long since stopped paying attention to since they've become so ingrained in society. The details of how it all happened just made it more absurd that they are still so much a part of life.

[Ed Grinberg]

Not only are racial classifications "still so much a part of life" -- the Biden administration is going all out discriminating by race, and is facing litigation over this. Of course, all the "right-thinking" people know it's the people criticizing & suing it who're the disgusting racists!
https://vdare.com/posts/stephen-miller-fights-anti-white-bigotry-washington-post-is-disgusted

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Not only are racial classifications “still so much a part of life”

Particularly at white blogs. How many Blacks are Volokh Conspirators? Has any Black professor been invited to participate?

How odd is this? One could check the odds.

Or one could consider the preferences of Republicans, conservatives, and Federalist Society members.

Then consider how frequently this blog publishes vile racial slurs.

From any perspective, the record supports conclusions.

[Ridgeway]

Hmmmm ... getting praise from George Will is pretty good, I guess, but have you ever debated yourself on the Harvard campus?

[David Nieporent]

Got it for Chanukah. Haven't read it yet.

[Eric VonSalzen]

As soon as I read this book I thought: This non-idealogical book is a hand grenade tossed into the fashionable racism of today. What it shows is that even if "we" want to treat different "races" differently, we lack the tools to define who belongs to what group.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

About 30 percent of America respects George Will.

He has been reduced to work as a "clinger whisperer" -- one of the junior varsity right-wingers hired by the Washington Post to try to incline the Post's educated, modern, reasoning, accomplished readership to find conservative thinking more understandable or palatable.

It was a perverse diversity endeavor, most likely: 'We already publish plenty of insightful, informed commentary for an educated audience -- let's throw some downscale intolerance, old-timey religion, and backwater disaffectedness into the mix.'

[David Nieporent]

29.99999% more than you, then!

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

My math could be a little off, but I believe that leaves just over 33 people, based on a current US population of 331.9 million people.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

But most of America considers George Will a cranky old misfit allied with bigots and jerks, while most of America shares my preferences.

Being on the right side of history and the winning side of the culture war has many benefits. Most of you right-wing malcontents will just have to take my word for it, because you will never experience anything like it.

Carry on, clingers. But just so far as better Americans permit, and not a half-step beyond.

[ReaderY]

Are you aware George Will came out as an atheist some decades ago? And denounced Trump rather strongly?

The right is not as monolithic as you make it out to be.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Allow me to guess…Kirkland made a comment which didn’t even attempt to make the case in favor of our modern system of racial preferences.

[Caphon]

Good work, man! Congratulations - it’s good to take stock of the attention and share the joy in it. Happy for you.

[David Bernstein]

All or almost all of these are folks who came to me, to whom I sent emails on my own, or who were on my publisher's publicity list.

[David Bernstein]

It’s unfortunate, but in the world of publishing, I am an obscure author. But of course, if I send an email to Michael Shermer (as I did, and who I only met once, briefly) he is more likely to pay attention if I’m a chaired professor at a reputable law school than if I were Joe Schmoe “independent scholar.” OTOH, it’s not like various Fox News or MSNBC hosts have been knocking down my door.

And all *that* said, a lot of authors, especially academics, put a lot of effort into their books and then next to no effort in making people aware that the book exists. I've come across books quite by accident that were right up the alley of my interests, by authors whom I know personally and reasonably well, but who didn't do any basic marketing.

[ReaderY]

Professor Bernstein is right here. All books work this way. Publishing is a business, not a pro bono charity.

Most books get promoted by their publishers without being picked up by notable reviewers and commentators. Important commentors are given many more things to review than they can. So the fact that a book has been given attention is itself meaningful. The fact that its publisher promoted it doesn’t detract from this.

It’s like pooh-poohing dying for a cause as meaningless because the person was going to die anyway. Nobody is immortal, so the supposedly meaningful alternative doesn’t exist. And most people don’t die for causes.

The situation here is similar.