Christopher Bonastia. Knocking on the Door: The Federal Government's Attempt to Desegregate the Suburbs. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 2006. Pp. xi, 234. $29.95

During the 1960s and 1970s, the federal government failed to pursue meaningful racial integration in housing while implementing a substantial degree of affirmative action in the areas of employment and public education. Christopher Bonastia's valuable book addresses this puzzle of divergent outcomes through a comparative analysis that builds on the models of historical institutionalism developed by political scientists and public policy scholars. Instead of focusing mainly on the grass roots or the White House, this approach highlights the considerable independence of executive branch agencies in fashioning social policies that can extend well beyond the intent of congressional laws or the preferences of particular presidents. Bonastia argues that the scope of enforcement depends upon the relative bureaucratic autonomy of a policy's institutional base, especially with politically controversial programs of race-conscious affirmative action. Chartered by the Civil Rights Act of 1964,...