Alexandra Robbins

The author unmasks Skull & Bones, the secret Yale society that has spawned three presidents--including both George Bushes--a major motion picture, and countless conspiracy theories.

Journalist Robbins explores the ways group identity theories play out among cliques--and the students they exclude. She reveals the new labels students stick onto each other today, the long-term effects of this marginalization, and the reasons students in these categories are often shunned. Then she celebrates them. The homogenization of the US education system has made outcasts more important than ever. In this conformist, creativity-stifling society,...