The diversity principle – the idea that people with different backgrounds, identities, and viewpoints produce better work – was a core tenet of the first modern research university and the inspiration for John Stuart Mill’s classic treatise, On Liberty. But as a war on diversity upends government, corporate, and education policies, the history of the idea of diversity has never been more important. In his latest book, The Diversity Principle: The Story of a Transformative Idea, David B. Oppenheimer, a diversity skeptic turned believer, chronicles how diversity became a foundation of education over the last 200 years, how it evolved in commerce and science, and the inevitable implications of the current backlash.
David B. Oppenheimer is Clinical Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the Director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative
Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law. He is author or co-author of ten books, including the award-winning Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society.
