PRACTICAL EQUALITY

A provocative history of the long fight for lawful equality in America—and a practical roadmap for how best to achieve it.

Equality is easy to grasp in theory but often hard to achieve in reality. In this accessible and convincing work, American University law professor Robert L. Tsai offers a stirring account of how legal ideas that aren't necessarily about equality at all—ensuring fair play, acting reasonably, avoiding cruelty, and protecting free speech—have been used to overcome inequality in the past and can serve as potent alternative tools to promote equality today.

Tsai traces challenges to equality throughout American history, from the oppression of emancipated slaves after the Civil War to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II to President Trump's recent Muslim ban. And he applies lessons from these and other past struggles to such pressing contemporary issues as the rights of sexual minorities, racial profiling, police brutality, voting restrictions, and more.

ROBERT L. TSAI is professor of law at American University. He is the author, most recently, of America's Forgotten Constitutions and his essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, Politico, and Slate. He lives in Washington, DC.