Choice Review

Editors Connor (SUNY New Paltz) and Penn (Univ. of Pennsylvania) set the stage for this collection in the introduction, promising examinations of diverse social conditions through a racial equity lens. The chapters that follow deliver on this promise. Topics covered include gun violence, policing, surveillance, marijuana legalization, health inequities, hate crimes, immigration, voting rights, and education. Even as the book addresses varied issues, each author maintains a focus on the policy criterion of racial equity in their own way. The problem analyses provide a window into how conceptualizing a condition influences its perception and potential policy alternatives. Overall, the book's general exploration of problems leans away from proximate causes and toward root causes, resulting in policy recommendations that largely eschew mainstream approaches in favor of more contentious, value-critical proposals, such as fundamentally altering institutions. Readers will be well served to take the contributors' recommendations seriously, even as they consider their political viability. Ultimately, this is a worthwhile volume for students new to public policy, policy analysts, and policy makers as they consider the merits of different approaches to policy analysis and the authors' proposals. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduates and professionals. --Timothy Lynch, University of St. Thomas