A consideration of the ideological gridlock paralyzing academic and political exchange in the nineties. The author dissects the controversies over multiculturalism, affirmative action, canon revision, hate speech, and legal reform, and takes both the left and the right equally to task.

1. Introduction: "That's Not Fair" -- 2. The Common Touch, or, One Size Fits All -- 3. The Empire Strikes Back -- 4. Reverse Racism, or, How the Pot Got to Call the Kettle Black -- 5. You Can Only Fight Discrimination with Discrimination -- 6. Bad Company -- 7. Speaking in Code, or, How to Turn Bigotry and Ignorance into Moral Principles -- 8. There's No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It's a Good Thing, Too -- 9. Jerry Falwell's Mother, or, What's the Harm? -- 10. Liberalism Doesn't Exist -- 11. The Law Wishes to Have a Formal Existence -- 12. Play of Surfaces: Theory and the Law -- 13. Almost Pragmatism: The Jurisprudence of Richard Posner, Richard Rorty, and Ronald Dworkin -- 14. Being Interdisciplinary Is So Very Hard to Do -- 15. The Young and the Restless -- 16. Milton's Career and the Career of Theory -- 17. Milton, Thou Shouldst Be Living at This Hour -- 18. The Unbearable Ugliness of Volvos -- Appendix. Fish Tales: A Conversation with "The Contemporary Sophist.".