Thomas Sowell takes a tough, factual look at whether the civil rights movement has lived up to its hopes or its rhetoric. In the decades since the historic Supreme Court decision on desegregation, who has gained and who has lost? Which of the assumptions behind the civil rights revolution have stood the test of time, and which have proven to be mistaken or even catastrophic to those who were supposed to be helped?

Armed with vast statistical research, Sowell deftly refutes the key assumptions on which the civil rights movement was erected - "that discrimination leads to poverty and other adverse social consequences and...that adverse statistical disparities imply discrimination." He surgically probes the fundamental racial issues, including affirmative action and busing, as well as women's issues, including the Equal Rights Amendment.