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David K. Shipler is the author of Russia- Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams and Arab and Jew- Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he was a New York Times reporter for more than twenty years in New York, Saigon, Moscow, Jerusalem, and Washington, and has been a recipient of the George Polk award and the Overseas Press Club award. He was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Ferris Professor of Journalism and Public Affairs at Princeton University.
This timely, perceptive book coincides with the call from President Clinton for a national dialogue on better racial understanding. Pulitzer Prize-winning Shipler (Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land) brings to bear his broad experience as a journalist in interviewing people about their feelings without imposing his own views. Shipler effectively probes the attitudes dividing whites from blacks, supporting his thesis that many people don't realize when they are offending members of a different background. Shipler criticizes blacks as well as whites for viewing others through the lens of their own stereotypes. To prove his point he interviews a cross-section of Americans to explore the subtleties of bias, and he tackles the problems among groups that are frequently misunderstood: blacks who keep to themselves on college campuses, and whites who see affirmative action as a threat. He then includes experiences of married couples of mixed races, men and women in the military, interracial incidents in the workplace and encounters with the police. Shipler's book is a guide to tolerance and an antidote to stereotypical thinking. 60,000 first printing; BOMC selection. (Oct.)
Conversation about race remains one of the most taboo subjects in America. "Since we do not know each other very well," Shipler writes, "we do not know what the other thinks of us." In his new book, he investigates and analyses social, political, cultural, and psychological issues from the perspective of both blacks and whites with a view toward breaking this silence. The result is a lengthy but eminently readable book enriched with dialog from interviews that crisscross the spectrum of ethnic and economic populations. Shipler considers such complex topics as sociocultural meanings of race, biculturalism, Afrocentrism, affirmative action, consequences of stereotyping, discrimination, affirmative action, and diversity training. In spite of his book's breadth, topics are discussed in depth and with sensitivity. Shipler, a former New York Times journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, is also the author of Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams (LJ 9/1/93). Highly recommended for all public and academic libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/97.]‘Faye Powell, Portland State Univ. Lib., Ore.
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