One Nation Indivisible

Given that multiculturalism and national unity are well-debated topics, any new book should take the discussion further. Unfortunately, this effort by federal Judge Wilkinson (From Brown to Bakke) does so only intermittently. On immigration, the author places himself in the sensible center--between pessimists, who embrace nostalgia, and optimists, who ignore the value of national unity. Multiculturalism, he says, makes the American affirmative-action model--developed for a biracial society--even more difficult. Recalling the ""integrative ideal"" emanating from the Brown desegregation case, he suggests that the minority separatism of today stems in part from more stubborn white separatism. He goes on to criticize racial gerrymandering, affirmative action, bilingual education and campus speech codes--a familiar though underdeveloped litany. Citing separatism in Quebec as an object lesson, Wilkinson urges ""[n]ationalism [as] an antidote to racialism""; yet he ignores the soak-the-rich policy prescriptions of Michael Lind (The Next American Nation), who makes a much deeper nationalist argument. Wilkinson's book would be more complete if it addressed creative thinkers such as Lani Guinier, who suggest ways to overcome racial redistricting, and those such as David Hollinger, who propose that, in a multicultural America, people must embrace multiple identities. (May)