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Book Review:

Paul Brest, School Desegregation Under Fire, 55 TEXAS L. REV. 569 (1976) (reviewing Lino Graglia’s Disaster By Decree: The Supreme Court Decisions on Race and the Schools (1976)).

Professor Brest recognizes Disaster By Decree as being true to its promise of providing “[a] sharply critical view of the court rulings that led to forced busing.”  While noting that the book contains much useful description and perceptive analysis, Professor Brest argues that it is seriously flawed by the author’s adversary approach to the subject.  He concludes by arguing that the book does not fill the need for a balanced critical history or analysis of school desegregation in the post-Brown era.  No reader will fail to be convinced that the Court’s opinions are woefully inadequate.  But, according to Professor Brest, the reader who seeks guidance in resolving the difficult social, moral, and constitutional issues o school desegregation must look elsewhere.