Without question, Jason Riley is one of the most prominent black journalists in the United States, rightly known for his weekly columns in the Wall Street Journal. On a consistent basis, he shrewdly dissects the nostrums of many authors, both black and white, who assert that the road to a successful future in race relations

Jens Ludwig is an economist who’s seen some things. A longtime gun-violence researcher who directs the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab, he’s accompanied cops to murder scenes and on high-speed chases. America’s efforts to control gun violence, he argues in Unforgiving Places, are coming up short. Liberals’ focus on “root causes” and conservatives’ support for