Somebodies and nobodies

the long version

When discrimination is race-based, we call it racism; when it's gender-based, we call it sexism. This book, by a physicist who is also a former college president and chairman of a major nonprofit board, introduces rank-based discrimination--or "rankism"--a form of injustice that everyone knows, but no one sees. It explains our reluctance to confront rankism, shows where analyses based on identity fall short and, using dozens of examples, traces many forms of injustice and unfairness to rankism.--From publisher description.