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| Thomas Sowell | | Date Created: May 21, 2005, 12:52 AM |
 Recently a colleague asked:
For someone who's never read Thomas Sowell except in Forbes magazine columns years ago, what would you recommend as a starter?
Here's the response:
There is no simple answer to this question.
Sowell is one of my heroes. Until his recent essays on the Teri Schiavo case, I can't think of anything he's written that I don't agree with. He's one of our true national treasures as an academic, an intellectual, and a writer. He's a PhD economist with a lot of influence from Milton Friedman. He's more of a libertarian to me but is identified as a conservative (partly because there are more of them and they pay better and partly because he's with the Hoover Institution). He's also a black man and can address the issue of race without rancor or political party bias. He's in his mid to latter 60's and doesn't appear or speak in public very often. Once in awhile the Cato Institute will get him to speak.
Here's a list of most of his books. I have many of them and have read quite a few.
Black Rednecks and White Liberals
Affirmative Action Around the World
Basic Economics
Applied Economics
A Personal Odyssey
Late Talking Children
Ethnic America: A History
Controversial Essays
The Quest for Cosmic Justice
Barbarians Inside the Gate
Einstein Syndrome
Civil Rights -- Rhetoric or Reality
Race and Culture
Vision of the Anointed
Conquests and Culture
Knowledge and Decisions
Inside American Education
Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study
His most recent that just came out is Black Rednecks and White Liberals. I haven't read it yet but it seems to be a continuation and update of his classics, Race and Culture, Vision of the Anointed, and Conquests and Culture. Perhaps it's more a sequel to Race and Culture. Vision of the Anointed is about liberal ideology and Conquests and Culture is similar to Jared Diamond's, Guns, Germs, and Steel but from a libertarian perspective. For socio-political issues, these three older books are a must.
His two books on economics, Basic Economics and Applied Economics, are amazing. Everything you need to know about economics without the math.
A Personal Odyssey is the book to read if you want to know the man. It's an autobiography and addresses the issue of his son who started talking very late and was diagnosed as autistic or mentally retarded but wasn't. This taught Sowell that the experts aren't always right and everyone is different -- key libertarian concepts. Late Talking Children is apparently an expanded version of his son's experience. This book reminds me of David Horowitz' Radical Son.
I don't know Ethnic America: A History. I imagine it's like one of Shelby Steele's books, A Dream Deferred or The Content of Our Character.
The Quest for Cosmic Justice is about moral philosophy and probably should be included with Race and Culture, Vision of the Anointed, and Conquests and Culture.
Knowledge and Decisions is a masterpiece too. It ties epistemology in with politics and economics.
I don't know Inside American Education but I bet it's a real doozy. I don't know about Einstein Syndrome or Civil Rights either.
Barbarians Inside the Gate and Controversial Essays are a collection of his essays and are well worth it but are scattered across many subjects as you might expect.
Affirmative Action Around The World: An Empirical Study came out last year and is the definitive word on the subject.
So I guess it depends on what you're looking for. If you want to know what he's up to, read Black Rednecks and White Liberals. If you want to know the man, read A Personal Odyssey. If you want the economics, read Basic Economics. If you want the classic treatises then it's one of the big books on race, culture, knowledge, or politics. Reading a collection of his essays could be enlightening. Currently, his essays are published online at TowhHall.com
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