"Steele has given eloquent voice to painful truths that are almost always left unspoken in the nation's circumscribed public discourse on race." -- New York Times

"One of the best books on race in America to appear in the past twenty-five years . . . No one who reads it honestly and with an open mind will ever think about race in quite the same way again." -- Wall Street Journal

"Steele writes with a rare elegance and honesty . . . This is one of those rare books that force reexamination of basic assumptions." -- Boston Globe

"Brutally honest, remarkably brave, and timely . . . We cannot afford to ignore his conclusions." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A brilliant book. Shelby Steele's brave, penetrating intelligence goes to the heart of the dilemma of race in America." -- Time

"Steele combines the literary sensibility of novelist Ralph Ellison with the analytic acuteness of American's most profound black man, Frederick Douglass . . . Steele's writings will last, to be read by generations as distant in time from him as he is from Douglass, whose worthy successor Steele is." -- George F. Will, Newsweek

"Elegant, personal pieces. Brilliant." -- New York magazine

"Well-written . . . Moving and persuasive." -- BusinessWeek