NYPL - David Oppenheimer with Van Jones: The Diversity Principle

The diversity principle asserts that people with different backgrounds, experiences, identities, and viewpoints produce better work through engagement with one another. For more than two centuries it has shaped countless ideas and institutions that define modern intellectual life, from John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty to 20th-century efforts toward equality. In his new book, The Diversity Principle: The Story of a Transformative Idea, UC Berkeley law professor David B. Oppenheimer, a former diversity skeptic, chronicles how this once-revolutionary idea became a foundational value in higher education over the past two centuries and the backlash it now faces.