This book explores the challenges facing the United States in the twenty-first century in providing all public school students with equal opportunity to learn and succeed in life. In the heart of her book, Martha Minow explores the empirical evidence and debates over providing equal opportunity in public school education to a variety of groups. Chapter 2 explores the challenges to equal opportunity presented by immigrants, English-language learners, girls, and boys. In Chapter 3 she explores issues of disability, sexual orientation, religion, and economic class, while Chapter 4 examines the experiences of American Indians and Native Hawaiians, as well as debates about group rights. Chapter 5 examines the issue of school choice programs. There is also an introduction and three additional chapters. The introductory chapter focuses on the history of school desegregation litigation, starting with the founding of the NAACP and the changing goals of Civil Rights activists. Chapter 6 reviews literature on the benefits of diverse schools, and Chapter 7, which briefly examines similar debates about inclusivity in South Africa, Northern Ireland, and the Czech Republic, concludes the book.

An underlying theme in each of the chapters is “the struggle over whether equality is to be realized through integrated or separate settings” (p. 33). For each group of students, Minow explores the continuing tension between efforts to make students feel more comfortable and learn more effectively in schools separated by race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and so on, and efforts to mak mainstream schools more accepting of and comfortable for students of diverse backgrounds. Sensitive to a variety of historical conditions and experiences, as well as present discrimination, Minow does not take a single position. While her preference is for inclusion (given historical experience), she repeats that “treating people the same who are different is not equal treatment” (p. 78). For example, in a particularly interesting discussion of single-sex education, she concludes that “[a]lthough it may help some students, single-sex education seems only acceptable when pursued on a voluntary basis; otherwise, it is too redolent of historic practices of exclusion” (p. 66). Similarly, in Chapter 4 on American Indians, Native Hawaiians, and group rights, the author asks, “[A]re distinct individuals or groups the proper unit of analysis and protection in the pursuit of equality?” (p. 96). Her answer is cautious: “Because of its association with state-backed discrimination, any government educational policy that separates students by identity … should be scoured for evidence that it actually promotes equal opportunity for each individual to have real success in life” (p. 108). This nuanced approach characterizes the book. Indeed, the epigraph of Chapter 4, from psychologist Mike Cole, can be seen as a summary of Minow's hesitancy to take a bright-line position on separate versus integrated settings: “People are not only exploited and oppressed in similar ways, they are exploited and oppressed in different and specific ways” (p. 96). Thus, her historically grounded concerns with separate schooling, combined with her sensitivity to empirical evidence, leave her open to the idea of separate schooling in some situations.

This is not to say that Minow lacks passion. The book is really about “enhancing social integration through schooling” (p. 139). She argues that integrated schools (along many dimensions) make important contributions to students' growth: “Besides boosting creativity, friendships, social and political equality, and real opportunities for academic excellence, inclusive schools can increase social capital” (p. 159). The crucial question for Minow is how best to accomplish these outcomes. It is interesting that she points to the schools run by the Defense Department for the children of military personnel around the world as promising examples (pp. 153–5). But she realizes the uniqueness of military culture. The challenge she sees is in organizing schools to create and support a more inclusive society. As she puts it, “[a]t stake is nothing less than the character of the society and the polity a generation hence” (p. 187).

It should be clear from this description that In Brown's Wake is more descriptive than prescriptive. It is thoughtful and nondogmatic, presenting a balanced consideration of evidence and arguments, rather than a brief for one approach. Although it is based entirely on secondary literature, it is thoroughly researched. Indeed, more than one-third of the book (106 pages) is taken up by the end-notes. Minow has no axe to grind other than her deep concern that the United States is failing to provide equal educational opportunity to all of its young people. Her thoughtful, sensitive, and balanced treatment engages the reader.

It should also be clear that despite its title, this is not a book about Brown. Rather, it is about the challenges of providing equal opportunity to school children of varying backgrounds, about how arguments over achieving equality have played out with various groups in public education, and about both learning from history and not being its prisoner. For example, Minow notes that while school choice was devised by segregationists to avoid desegregation, today it may empower inner-city racial minorities. Although the author makes assertions about Brown's importance, she does not provide the evidence necessary to support a causal argument. Obviously, not every argument for equal treatment is a result of Brown. And while Brown has been crucial for lawyers litigating school equality cases, that is not saying very much. In Minow's usage, Brown serves as a placeholder for concerns about equality. Putting Brown in the title may help sell more books, but it is not the book's focus.

Because Minow is so balanced and thoughtful in her treatment of different arguments, for most of the book the reader is left to wonder where she stands. In the end it becomes clear that her key concern is furthering social integration and civic equality. That concern would have been more powerfully conveyed if she had framed the book around the importance of social integration. An introductory chapter that presented and developed the claim would have helped to frame the analysis in each case and left the reader more satisfied. Still, In Brown's Wake provides readers with a thoughtful and engaging look at the evidence and arguments about where we have been, where we are now, and where we need to go to provide equal opportunity in education for schoolchildren.