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Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal

Why, despite continued efforts to increase understanding and expand opportunities, do black and white Americans still lead separate lives, continually marked by tension and hostility? In his much-lauded classic, newly updated to reflect the changing realities of race in our nation, Andrew Hacker explains the origins and meaning of racism and clarifies the conflicting theories of equality and inferiority. He paints a stark picture of racial inequality in America -- focusing on family life, education, income, and employment -- and explores the current controversies over politics, crime, and the causes of the gap between the races. Illuminating and oftentimes startling, Two Nations demonstrates how race has defined America's history and will continue to shape its future.

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Mismatch: The Growing Gulf Between Women and Men

After tackling the sensitive issues of race and wealth, bestselling author Andrew Hacker now turns his authoritative analysis to a topic on which almost everyone has an opinion: the relationship between the sexes. Skillfully employing a wide range of new and startling statistics, he finds a gender divide that is only getting wider, with devastating consequences for family life and personal happiness.

Whether measured by quantity or quality, marriages are weaker and briefer than at any time since this nation began. Gone are the days when men and women happily assumed the complementary roles of provider and caretaker. Today's women are unwilling to truncate their goals to make life congenial for men; instead they are competing for -- and often winning -- places once thought of as solely male preserves. At the same time, fewer men can satisfy the expectations modern women have for their dates and mates. What does this mean for the future of intimate relationships?

Andrew Hacker probes statistics on divorce and parenthood to explain why more women are initiating divorce and why so many are raising children alone -- or choosing to forgo motherhood altogether. He notes that more men are skipping college, just as more women are entering and succeeding at careers once dominated by men. But even as women make great strides in the workplace, double standards and glass ceilings persist, suggesting continuing and new forms of hostility and discrimination. Hacker also confronts the troubling question of why, in a civilized nation, rape and assault against women remain widespread and why men and women are opposed on fundamental issues such as gun control and abortion. Perhaps most provocatively, he makes the prediction that the social patterns of white Americans are beginning to mirror those of blacks -- yet another result of the growing gender divide.

Sure to incite discussion and debate, Mismatch is an important, defining book from the "political scientist known for doing with statistics what Fred Astaire did with hats, canes, and chairs" (Newsweek).

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Money: Who Has How Much and Why

Described by Newsweek as "a political scientist doing with statistics what Fred Astaire did with hats, canes, and chairs...he makes them live and breathe," Andrew Hacker provides a comprehensive protrayal of income and wealth in American society.

Combining keen insight with a flair for bringing a human dimension to facts and figures, bestselling author Andrew Hacker shows how the changing economy affects our lives. His clear-eyed analysis illuminates the real results of women's fight for salary parity, the impact of affirmative action on the income of minorities, the effect immigration has on the job market, and more.

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HIGHER EDUCATION? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids---and What We Can Do About It

A quarter of a million dollars. It's the going tab for four years at most top-tier universities. Why does it cost so much and is it worth it?

Renowned sociologist Andrew Hacker and New York Times writer Claudia Dreifus make an incisive case that the American way of higher education, now a $420 billion-per-year business, has lost sight of its primary mission: the education of young adults. Going behind the myths and mantras, they probe the true performance of the Ivy League, the baleful influence of tenure, an unhealthy reliance on part-time teachers, and the supersized bureaucracies which now have a life of their own.

As Hacker and Dreifus call for a thorough overhaul of a self-indulgent system, they take readers on a road trip from Princeton to Evergreen State to Florida Gulf Coast University, revealing those faculties and institutions that are getting it right and proving that teaching and learning can be achieved—and at a much more reasonable price.