Brigadier General James Monroe Williams

Thomas Sowell (/sl/ SOHL; born June 30, 1930) is an American economist, social philosopher, and political commentator. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.[1][2] With widely published commentary and books—and as a guest on TV and radio—he became a well-known voice in the American conservative movement as a prominent black conservative.[3][4][5] He was a recipient of the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush in 2002.[6][a]

Sowell was born in segregated Gastonia, North Carolina, to a poor family, and grew up in Harlem, New York City.[7] Due to poverty and difficulties at home, he dropped out of Stuyvesant High School and worked various odd jobs, eventually serving in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. Afterward, he took night classes at Howard University and then attended Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1958.[7] He earned a master's degree in economics from Columbia University the next year and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968.[8] In his academic career, he held professorships at Cornell University, Brandeis University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. He has also worked at think tanks including the Urban Institute. Since 1977, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy.

Sowell was an important figure to the conservative movement during the Reagan era, influencing fellow economist Walter E. Williams and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.[3][9][10] He was offered a position as Federal Trade Commissioner in the Ford administration,[11] and was considered for posts including U.S. Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration,[12] but declined both times.[11][13]

Sowell is the author of more than 45 books (including revised and new editions) on a variety of subjects including politics, economics, education and race, and he has been a syndicated columnist in more than 150 newspapers.[14][15] His views are described as conservative, especially on social issues;[4][16][17][18] libertarian, especially on economics;[16][19][20] or libertarian-conservative.[21] He has said he may be best labeled as a libertarian, though he disagrees with libertarians on some issues, such as national defense.[22]

Early life

Sowell was born in 1930 into a poor family in segregated Gastonia, North Carolina.[7][23] His father died shortly before he was born, leaving behind Sowell's mother, a housemaid who already had four children. A great-aunt and her two grown daughters adopted Sowell and raised him.[7] His mother died a few years later of complications while giving birth to another child.[24] In his autobiography, A Personal Odyssey, Sowell wrote that his childhood encounters with white people were so limited that he did not know blond was a hair color.[25] He recalls that his first memories were living in a small wooden house in Charlotte, North Carolina, which he stated was typical of most black neighborhoods.[24] It was located on an unpaved street and had no electricity or running water.[24] When Sowell was nine years old, he and his extended family moved from North Carolina to Harlem, New York City, for greater opportunities, joining in the large-scale trend of African-American migration from the American south to the north. Family quarrels forced him and his aunt to room in other people's apartments.[24]

Sowell qualified for Stuyvesant High School, a prestigious academic high school in New York City; he was the first in his family to study beyond the sixth grade. However, he was forced to drop out at age 17 because of financial difficulties and family quarreling.[7] He worked a number of odd jobs, including long hours at a machine shop, and as a delivery man for Western Union.[26] He also tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948.[27] Sowell was drafted into the armed services in 1951 during the Korean War and was assigned to the U.S. Marine Corps. Although Sowell opposed the war and experienced racism, he was able to find fulfillment as a photographer, which eventually became his favorite hobby.[7][24] He was honorably discharged in 1952.[24]

Higher education and early career

After leaving military service, Sowell completed high school, took a civil service job in Washington, DC, and attended night classes at Howard University, a historically black college.[28][29] His high scores on the College Board exams and recommendations by two professors helped him gain admission to Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics.[7][30] He earned a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University the following year.[30] Sowell had initially chosen Columbia University to study under George Stigler, who would later receive the Nobel Prize in Economics, but when he learned that Stigler had moved to the University of Chicago, he followed him there and studied for his doctorate under Stigler upon arriving in the fall of 1959.[31]

Sowell has said that he was a Marxist "during the decade of my 20s". One of his earliest professional publications was a sympathetic examination of Marxist thought vs. Marxist–Leninist practice.[32] What began to change his mind toward supporting free market economics, he said, was studying the possible impact of minimum wages on unemployment of sugar industry workers in Puerto Rico, as a U.S. Department of Labor intern. Workers at the department were surprised by his questioning, he said, and he concluded that "they certainly weren't going to engage in any scrutiny of the law".[22]

Sowell received his Doctor of Philosophy in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968.[30] His dissertation was titled "Say's Law and the General Glut Controversy".[33]

Academic career

From 1965 to 1969, Sowell was an assistant professor of economics at Cornell University. Writing 30 years later about the 1969 seizure of Willard Straight Hall by black students at Cornell, Sowell characterized the students as "hoodlums" with "serious academic problems [who were] admitted under lower academic standards", and noted "it so happens that the pervasive racism that black students supposedly encountered at every turn on campus and in town was not apparent to me during the four years that I taught at Cornell and lived in Ithaca."[34]

Sowell has taught economics at Howard University, Rutgers, Cornell, Brandeis University, Amherst College, and the University of California, Los Angeles.[28] At Howard, Sowell wrote, he was offered the position as head of the economics department, but he declined.[35] Since 1980, he has been a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he holds a fellowship named after Rose and Milton Friedman, his mentor.[30][36] The Hoover appointment, because it did not involve teaching, gave him more time for his numerous writings.[12] In addition, Sowell appeared several times on William F. Buckley Jr.'s show Firing Line, during which he discussed the economics of race and privatization. Sowell has written that he gradually lost faith in the academic system, citing low academic standards and counterproductive university bureaucracy, and he resolved to leave teaching after his time at the University of California, Los Angeles.[35] In A Personal Odyssey, he recounts, "I had come to Amherst, basically, to find reasons to continue teaching. What I found instead were more reasons to abandon an academic career."[35]

In an interview, Sowell said he had been offered a position as Federal Trade Commissioner by the Ford administration in 1976, but that after pursuing the opportunity, he withdrew from consideration to avoid the political games surrounding the position.[11] He said in another interview that he was offered the post of United States Secretary of Education but declined.[13] In 1980, after Reagan's election, Sowell and Henry Lucas organized the Black Alternatives Conference to bring together black and white conservatives; one attendee was a young Clarence Thomas, then a congressional aide.[37][38] Sowell was appointed as a member of the Economic Policy Advisory Committee of the Reagan administration,[12] but resigned after the first meeting, disliking travel from the West Coast and lengthy discussions in Washington; of his decision to resign, Sowell cited "the opinion (and the example) of Milton Friedman, that some individuals can contribute more by staying out of government".[39]

In 1987, Sowell testified in favor of federal appeals court judge Robert Bork during the hearings for Bork's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. In his testimony, Sowell said that Bork was "the most highly qualified nominee of this generation" and that what he viewed as judicial activism, a concept that Bork opposed as a self-described originalist and textualist, "has not been beneficial to minorities."[40]

In a review of Sowell's 1987 book, A Conflict of Visions, Larry D. Nachman in Commentary magazine described Sowell as a leading representative of the Chicago school of economics.[41]

Writings and thought

Themes of Sowell's writing range from social policy on race, ethnic groups, education, and decision-making, to classical and Marxian economics, to the problems of children perceived as having disabilities.

Sowell had a nationally syndicated column distributed by Creators Syndicate that was published in Forbes magazine, National Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The New York Post, and other major newspapers, as well as online on websites such as RealClearPolitics, Townhall, WorldNetDaily, and the Jewish World Review.[42] Sowell commented on current issues, which include liberal media bias;[43] judicial activism and originalism;[44] abortion;[45] minimum wage; universal health care; the tension between government policies, programs, and protections and familial autonomy; affirmative action; government bureaucracy;[46] gun control;[47] militancy in U.S. foreign policy; the war on drugs; multiculturalism;[48] mob rule and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.[49] According to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Sowell was the most cited black economist between 1991 and 1995, and second most cited between 1971 and 1990.[2][b]

He was a frequent guest on The Rush Limbaugh Show, in conversations with Walter E. Williams, who was a substitute host for Limbaugh.[16]

On December 27, 2016, Sowell announced the end of his syndicated column, writing that, at age 86, "the question is not why I am quitting, but why I kept at it so long", and cited a desire to focus on his photography hobby.[15]

The TV show Free to Choose, distributed by the Free to Choose Network, features Sowell along with Milton Friedman and a number of other panelists as they discuss the relationship between freedom and individual economic choices.[50][51] A documentary detailing his career entitled "Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World" was released by the Free to Choose Network in 2021.[52][53]

Economic and political ideology

Until the spring of 1972, Sowell was a registered Democrat, after which he then left the Democratic Party and resolved not to associate with any political party again, stating "I was so disgusted with both candidates that I didn't vote at all."[11] Though he is often described as a black conservative, Sowell said, "I prefer not to have labels, but I suspect that 'libertarian' would suit me better than many others, although I disagree with the libertarian movement on a number of things."[22] He has been described as one of the most prominent advocates of contemporary classical liberalism along with Friedrich Hayek and Larry Arnhart.[54] Sowell primarily writes on economic subjects, generally advocating a free market approach to capitalism.[55] Sowell opposes the Federal Reserve, arguing that it has been unsuccessful in preventing economic depressions and limiting inflation.[56] Sowell described his study of Karl Marx in his autobiography; as a former Marxist who early in his career became disillusioned with it, he emphatically opposes Marxism, providing a critique in his book Marxism: Philosophy and Economics (1985).

Sowell has also written a trilogy of books on ideologies and political positions, including A Conflict of Visions, in which he speaks on the origins of political strife; The Vision of the Anointed, in which he compares the conservative/libertarian and liberal/progressive worldviews; and The Quest for Cosmic Justice, in which, as in many of his other writings, he outlines his thesis of the need felt by intellectuals, politicians, and leaders to fix and perfect the world in utopian and ultimately, he posits, disastrous fashions. Separate from the trilogy, but also in discussion of the subject, he wrote Intellectuals and Society, building on his earlier work, in which he discusses what he argues to be the blind hubris and follies of intellectuals in a variety of areas.

His book Knowledge and Decisions, a winner of the 1980 Law and Economics Center Prize, was heralded as a "landmark work," selected for this prize "because of its cogent contribution to our understanding of the differences between the market process and the process of government." In announcing the award, the centre acclaimed Sowell, whose "contribution to our understanding of the process of regulation alone would make the book important, but in reemphasizing the diversity and efficiency that the market makes possible, [his] work goes deeper and becomes even more significant."[57] Friedrich Hayek wrote: "In a wholly original manner [Sowell] succeeds in translating abstract and theoretical argument into highly concrete and realistic discussion of the central problems of contemporary economic policy."[58]

Sowell opposes the imposition of minimum wages by governments, arguing in his book Basic Economics that "Unfortunately, the real minimum wage is always zero, regardless of the laws, and that is the wage that many workers receive in the wake of the creation or escalation of a government-mandated minimum wage, because they either lose their jobs or fail to find jobs when they enter the labor force."[59] He goes further to argue that minimum wages disproportionately affect "members of racial or ethnic minority groups" that have been discriminated against. He asserts that "Before federal minimum wage laws were instituted in the 1930s, the black unemployment rate was slightly lower than the white unemployment rate in 1930. But then followed the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933 and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 – all of which imposed government-mandated minimum wages, either on a particular sector or more broadly... By 1954, black unemployment rates were double those of whites and have continued to be at that level or higher. Those particularly hard hit by the resulting unemployment have been black teenage males."[60]

Sowell also favors decriminalization of all drugs.[61] He opposes gun control laws, arguing, "On net balance, they do not save lives, but cost lives."[47]

Race and ethnicity

Sowell has supported conservative political positions on race, and is known for caustic, sarcastic criticism of liberal black civil rights figures.[62][5] Sowell has argued that systemic racism is an untested, questionable hypothesis, writing, "I don't think even the people who use it have any clear idea what they're saying", and compared it to propaganda tactics used by Joseph Goebbels because if it is "repeated long enough and loud enough", people "cave in" to it.[63][64]

In several of his works—including The Economics and Politics of Race (1983), Ethnic America (1981), Affirmative Action Around the World (2004), and other books—Sowell challenges the notion that black progress is due to progressive government programs or policies. He claims that many problems identified with blacks in modern society are not unique, neither in terms of American ethnic groups, nor in terms of a rural proletariat struggling with disruption as it became urbanized, as discussed in his Black Rednecks and White Liberals (2005).[65] He is critical of affirmative action and race-based quotas.[66][67]

When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.[68]

He takes issue with the notion of government as a helper or savior of minorities, arguing that the historical record shows quite the opposite. In Affirmative Action Around the World,[69] Sowell holds that affirmative action affects more groups than is commonly understood, though its impacts occur through different mechanisms, and has long since ceased to favor blacks.

One of the few policies that can be said to harm virtually every group in a different way. ... Obviously, whites and Asians lose out when you have preferential admission for black students or Hispanic students—but blacks and Hispanics lose out because what typically happens is the students who have all the credentials to succeed in college are admitted to colleges where the standards are so much higher that they fail.[70]

In Intellectuals and Race (2013), Sowell argues that intelligence quotient (IQ) gaps are hardly startling or unusual between, or within, ethnic groups. He notes that the roughly 15-point gap in contemporary black–white IQ scores is similar to that between the national average and the scores of certain ethnic white groups in years past, in periods when the nation was absorbing new immigrants.[71]

Late-talking and the Einstein syndrome

Sowell wrote The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late, a follow-up to his Late-Talking Children, discussing a condition he termed the Einstein syndrome. This book investigates the phenomenon of late-talking children, frequently misdiagnosed with autism or pervasive developmental disorder. He includes the research of Stephen Camarata and Steven Pinker, among others, in this overview of a poorly understood developmental trait. It is a trait which he says affected many historical figures who developed prominent careers, such as physicists Albert Einstein,[72] Edward Teller, and Richard Feynman; mathematician Julia Robinson; and musicians Arthur Rubinstein and Clara Schumann. He makes the case for the theory that some children develop unevenly (asynchronous development) for a period in childhood due to rapid and extraordinary development in the analytical functions of the brain. This may temporarily "rob resources" from neighboring functions such as language development.

Politics

In a 2009 column titled "The Bush Legacy", Sowell assessed President George W. Bush as "a mixed bag" but "an honorable man."[73]

Sowell said the media was "filtering and spinning" its coverage regarding abortions[74] and has spoken out against sex-selective abortion.[75] In 2018, he named George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and Calvin Coolidge as presidents he liked.[76]

Donald Trump

Sowell was strongly critical of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and grudgingly endorsed Ted Cruz in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, criticizing him as well, and stating that "we can only make our choices among those actually available".[77] During the Republican primary of the 2016 presidential election, Sowell criticized Trump, questioning whether Trump had "any principles at all, other than promoting Donald Trump?"[78] Two weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Sowell recommended voters to vote for Trump over Hillary Clinton, because he would be "easier to impeach".[79] In 2018, when asked on his thoughts of Trump's presidency, Sowell replied, "I think he's better than the previous president."[17]

During interviews in 2019, Sowell defended President Trump against charges of racism.[80][81]

Joe Biden presidential nomination

In 2020, Sowell wrote that if the Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, it could signal a point of no return for the United States, a tipping point akin to the fall of the Roman Empire. In an interview in July 2020, he stated that "the Roman Empire overcame many problems in its long history but eventually it reached a point where it could no longer continue, and much of that was from within, not just the barbarians attacking from outside." Sowell wrote that if Biden became president, the Democratic Party would have an enormous amount of control over the nation, and if this happened, they could twin with the "radical left" and ideas such as defunding the police could come to fruition.[64][82]

Education

Sowell has written about education throughout his career. He has argued for the need for reform of the school system in the United States. In his latest book, Charter Schools and Their Enemies (2020), Sowell compares the educational outcomes of school children educated at charter schools with those at conventional public schools. In his research, Sowell first explains the need and his methodology for choosing comparable students—both ethnically and socioeconomically—before listing his findings. He presents the case that charter schools on the whole do significantly better in terms of educational outcomes than conventional schools.[83][84][85]

Sowell argues that many U.S. schools are failing children; contends that "indoctrination" has taken the place of proper education; and argues that teachers' unions have promoted harmful education policies. Sowell contends that many schools have become monopolies for educational bureaucracies.[86]

In his book Education: Assumptions Versus History (1986), Sowell analyzes the state of education in U.S. schools and universities. In particular, he examines the experiences of blacks and other ethnic groups in the American education system and identifies the factors and patterns behind both success and failure.[87]

Reception

Nathan J. Robinson stated that Sowell "is not given much attention by mainstream scholars in the academy, and few of his books are reviewed by major liberal-leaning publications."[88] Economist James B. Stewart wrote a critical review of Black Rednecks and White Liberals, calling it "the latest salvo in Thomas Sowell's continuing crusade to represent allegedly dysfunctional value orientations and behavioral characteristics of African Americans as the principal reasons for persistent economic and social disparities." He also criticized it for downplaying the impact of slavery.[89] Particularly in black communities in the 1980s Sowell became, in historian Michael Ondaatje's words, "persona non grata, someone known to talk about, rather than with, African Americans".[90] Economist Bernadette Chachere,[91] law professor Richard Thompson Ford,[92] and sociologists William Julius Wilson[93] and Richard Coughlin[94] have criticized some of his work.

Criticisms include neglecting discrimination against women in the workforce in Rhetoric or Reality?,[93] the methodology of Race and Culture: A World View,[94] and portrayal of opposing theories in Intellectuals and Race.[92] Economist Jennifer Doleac criticized Discrimination and Disparities, arguing that statistical discrimination is real and pervasive (Sowell argues that existing racial disparities are mostly due to accurate sorting based on underlying characteristics, such as education) and that government intervention can achieve societal goals and make markets work more efficiently.[95] Columnist Steven Pearlstein criticized Wealth, Poverty and Politics.[18]

Classical liberals, libertarians, and other conservatives of different disciplines have received Sowell's work positively.[96][97][98][99] Among these, he has been noted for originality, depth and breadth,[100][101] clarity of expression, and thoroughness of research.[102][101][103] Sowell's publications have been received positively by economists Steven Plaut,[103] Steve H. Hanke[104] James M. Buchanan;[76] and John B. Taylor;[105] philosophers Carl Cohen[106] and Tibor Machan;[107] science historian Michael Shermer;[108] essayist Gerald Early;[4] political scientists Abigail Thernstrom[109] and Charles Murray;[100] psychologists Steven Pinker[110][111] and Jonathan Haidt;[112][113] and Josef Joffe, publisher and editor of Die Zeit.[101] Steve Forbes, in a 2015 column, stated that "it's a scandal that economist Thomas Sowell has not been awarded the Nobel Prize. No one alive has turned out so many insightful, richly researched books."[114]

Personal life

Sowell was married to Alma Jean Parr from 1964 to 1975, and married Mary Ash in 1981.[115] He has two children.[11][116][117]

Legacy and honors

Clarence Thomas (last on right) accepting the 2002 National Humanities Medal on Sowell's behalf

Career chronology

Bibliography

Books

Selected essays

Footnotes

  1. ^ Sowell declined to be awarded the National Humanities Medal in person. Justice Clarence Thomas received it on his behalf on February 23, 2003.
  2. ^ The article finds that "black economists who are most frequently cited are almost never economic theoreticians. Rather, they tend to be social commentators who write widely on issues of race."

See also

References

  1. ^ "Thomas Sowell". Hoover Institution. Archived from the original on May 16, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2022. He writes on economics, history, social policy, ethnicity, and the history of ideas.
  2. ^ a b "The Most Highly Cited Black Economists". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (15): 35–37. 1997. doi:10.2307/2962681. JSTOR 2962681. Archived from the original on August 16, 2021. Retrieved June 21, 2021 – via JSTOR.
  3. ^ a b Ondaatje, Michael L. (2010). Black Conservative Intellectuals in Modern America. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 30–32. ISBN 978-0-8122-0687-6. OCLC 794702292. Perched at the forefront of the new black vanguard and certainly its unofficial intellectual messiah since the mid-1970s, Sowell was the most prolific black conservative writer of the era.
  4. ^ a b c Early, Gerald (May 22, 2018). "The Black Conservative Lion in Winter". The Common Reader. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  5. ^ a b Dillard, Angela D. (2001). Guess who's coming to dinner now? : multicultural conservatism in America. New York: New York University Press. pp. 6, 60. ISBN 0-8147-1939-2. OCLC 45023496.
  6. ^ Wiltz, Teresa (February 28, 2003). "Bush Honors Eight From the Humanities". The Washington Post.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Graglia, Nino A. (Winter 2001). "Profile in courage". Hoover Institution Newsletter. Hoover Institution. Archived from the original on September 9, 2005.
  8. ^ Ondaatje 2010, pp. 30–31.
  9. ^ Williams, Walter E. (2010). Up from the projects : an autobiography. Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press. ISBN 978-0-8179-1256-7. OCLC 821216878. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  10. ^ Robin, Corey (2019). The enigma of Clarence Thomas (First ed.). New York City. ISBN 978-1-62779-384-1. OCLC 1121044511.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ^ a b c d e "Thomas Sowell". Q&A. C-SPAN. April 17, 2005. Archived from the original on December 14, 2005.
  12. ^ a b c Ondaatje 2010, p. 32.
  13. ^ a b "Thomas Sowell". Charlie Rose. September 15, 1995. Event occurs at 5:50. Archived from the original on February 7, 2022. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
  14. ^ "Thomas Sowell". The National Endowment for the Humanities. Archived from the original on August 17, 2022. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  15. ^ a b "Farewell". Real clear politics. December 27, 2016. Archived from the original on September 28, 2018. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  16. ^ a b c Carlisle, Rodney P. (2005). Encyclopedia of Politics : the left and the right. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. p. 876. ISBN 978-1-4522-6531-5. OCLC 812407954. He is a libertarian on economics and a conservative on most social issues, but he has registered as an independent in politics since 1972.... Limbaugh's listeners enjoy listening in as Williams and Sowell discuss the free market and traditional social values.
  17. ^ a b Malagisi, Christopher, host. 23 April 2018. "Interview with the Legendary Thomas Sowell: His New Book, His Legacy, and What He Thinks of Trump and the Future of America Archived August 8, 2020, at the Wayback Machine" (podcast). Ep. 5 in The Conservative Book Club Podcast. US: The Conservative Book Club.
  18. ^ a b Pearlstein, Steven (September 4, 2015). "Here's why poor people are poor, says a conservative black academic". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved May 15, 2021.
  19. ^ Younkins, Edward W. (August 15, 2002). Capitalism and Commerce: Conceptual Foundations of Free Enterprise. Lexington Books. p. 318. ISBN 978-0-7391-5280-5. Archived from the original on September 6, 2022. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  20. ^ Zwolinski, Matt; Ferguson, Benjamin (2022). The Routledge Companion to Libertarianism. Routledge. p. 248. ISBN 978-1-000-56922-3. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved September 30, 2022.
  21. ^ Harvey, Robert S.; Gonzowitz, Susan (2022). Teaching as Protest: Emancipating Classrooms Through Racial Consciousness. Routledge. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-000-54060-4. Archived from the original on September 6, 2022. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
  22. ^ a b c Sawhill, Ray (November 10, 1999). "Black and right". Salon.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2000. I prefer not to have labels, but I suspect that "libertarian" would suit me better than many others, although I disagree with the libertarian movement on a number of things -- military preparedness, for instance.
  23. ^ Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present. 2009. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195167795.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-516779-5. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  24. ^ a b c d e f "Black History Month Profile: Thomas Sowell". Hoover Institution. Archived from the original on May 9, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  25. ^ Sowell, A Personal Odyssey, p. 6.
  26. ^ Sowell, A Personal Odyssey, pp. 47, 58, 59, 62.
  27. ^ Nordlinger, Jay. February 21, 2011. "A lion in high summer: Thomas Sowell, charging ahead Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine." National Review 63(3):43–45.
  28. ^ a b Ondaatje 2010, p. 31.
  29. ^ Sowell, Thomas (2000). "A Personal Odyssey from Howard to Harvard and Beyond". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (30): 122–128. doi:10.2307/2679117. ISSN 1077-3711. JSTOR 2679117. Archived from the original on June 3, 2021. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  30. ^ a b c d Sowell, Thomas. "Curriculum vita". TSowell.com. Archived from the original on May 22, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
  31. ^ Riley, Jason (July 2021). "The Conversion of Thomas Sowell". Reason. Archived from the original on May 16, 2022.
  32. ^ Sowell, Thomas. 1963. "Karl Marx and the Freedom of the Individual." Ethics 73(2):120.
  33. ^ Sowell, Thomas (1968). Say's Law and the General Glut Controversy (PhD dissertation). University of Chicago. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
  34. ^ a b Sowell, Thomas (May 3, 1999). "The Day Cornell Died". The Weekly Standard. Archived from the original on July 19, 2019. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  35. ^ a b c Sowell, Thomas (2000). A Personal Odyssey. BasicBooks. p. 275. ISBN 9780684864648.
  36. ^ "Thomas Sowell". Hoover Institution. Archived from the original on May 16, 2014. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
  37. ^ Dillard 2001, p. 6.
  38. ^ Rueter, Theodore (1995). The politics of race : African Americans and the political system. London. p. 97. ISBN 1-315-28636-X. OCLC 959428491.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  39. ^ Riley 2021.
  40. ^ Greenhouse, Linda (September 26, 1987). "Legal Establishment Divided Over Bork Nomination". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved November 18, 2011. Video of Sowell's testimony at C-SPAN Archived July 24, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  41. ^ Nachman, Larry D. March 1987. "'A Conflict of Visions', by Thomas Sowell Archived June 9, 2019, at the Wayback Machine." Commentary.
  42. ^ "Thomas Sowell". Jewish World Review. November 6, 2009. Archived from the original on October 29, 2018. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  43. ^ Sowell, Thomas (October 12, 2004). "The media's role". Creators Syndicate. Archived from the original on December 14, 2004. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
  44. ^ "Judicial Activism Reconsidered". T Sowell. Archived from the original on April 6, 2019. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
  45. ^ Sowell, Thomas (June 4, 2004). "Thomas Sowell : 'Partial truth' abortion". Creators Syndicate. Archived from the original on August 13, 2004. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  46. ^ "International Book Award". Get Abstract. Archived from the original on May 10, 2012. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
  47. ^ a b "Do Gun Control Laws Control Guns?". Creators Syndicate. January 22, 2013. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  48. ^ "The Cult of Multiculturalism". National Review Online. October 18, 2010. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  49. ^ Sowell, Thomas (August 2, 2022). "Weeding out pro-mob rule pols is the biggest problem this election year". New York Post. Archived from the original on September 7, 2022. Retrieved September 7, 2022.
  50. ^ "Bob Chitester: How Free To Choose Changed the World". Reason.com. October 21, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
  51. ^ Network, Free To Choose. "Free To Choose". freetochoosenetwork.org. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
  52. ^ "Coming in 2021: "Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World"". American Enterprise Institute – AEI. July 9, 2020. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  53. ^ Network, Free To Choose. "Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World". freetochoosenetwork.org. Archived from the original on March 15, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  54. ^ Dilley, Stephen (2013). Darwinian Evolution and Classical Liberalism: Theories in Tension. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0739181065. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  55. ^ "Thomas Sowell". Jewish World Review. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
  56. ^ "Thomas Sowell: Federal Reserve a 'Cancer'". It makes sense (blog). Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  57. ^ "Knowledge and Decisions by Thomas Sowell, 1996". Archived from the original on June 22, 2013. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  58. ^ Hayek, Friedrich (December 1981). "The Best Book on General Economics in Many a Year". Reason. Vol. 13. Reason Foundation. pp. 47–49. Archived from the original on January 1, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  59. ^ "Notable & Quotable: Thomas Sowell". The Wall Street Journal. April 8, 2016. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on February 10, 2022. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
  60. ^ "Thomas Sowell on the differential impact of the minimum wage". American Enterprise Institute – AEI. May 31, 2016. Archived from the original on February 10, 2022. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
  61. ^ Sowell, Thomas (1987); Compassion Versus Guilt, and Other Essays; ISBN 0-688-07114-7.
  62. ^ Ondaatje 2010, pp. 32–33.
  63. ^ Chasmar, Jessica (July 13, 2020). "Thomas Sowell: Joe Biden win could signal 'point of no return for this country'". The Washington Times. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020.
  64. ^ a b Creitz, Charles (July 12, 2020). "Thomas Sowell says concept of systemic racism 'has no meaning,' warns US could reach 'point of no return'". Fox News Website. Archived from the original on August 19, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  65. ^ Sowell, Thomas (January 1, 2005). Black Rednecks and White Liberals (First ed.). Google Books: Encounter Books. pp. 1–65. ISBN 1594033498. Archived from the original on July 4, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  66. ^ Sowell, Thomas (August 10, 2000). "Blacks and Bootstraps". Creators Syndicate. Archived from the original on October 26, 2000. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  67. ^ "Quota 'logic'". Creators Syndicate. April 22, 2003. Archived from the original on June 4, 2003. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  68. ^ "Thomas Sowell Quote". July 13, 2015. Archived from the original on July 4, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  69. ^ Sowell, Thomas (October 30, 2004). "Affirmative Action around the World | Hoover Institution". Hoover.org. Archived from the original on January 10, 2011. Retrieved January 30, 2011.
  70. ^ Miller, Andrew (July 13, 2020). "Thomas Sowell: Idea of 'systemic racism' a lie that has 'no meaning' and is reminiscent of Nazi propaganda". Washington Examiner. Archived from the original on May 18, 2021. Retrieved May 6, 2021.
  71. ^ Sowell, Thomas (2013). Intellectuals and race. Ashland, Oregon: Blackstone Audio. ISBN 978-1482923537.
  72. ^ Wolff, Barbara, and Hananya Goodman. "The Legend of the Dull-Witted Child Who Grew Up to Be a Genius Archived August 20, 2018, at the Wayback Machine." The Albert Einstein Archives. IS: Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
  73. ^ Sowell, Thomas (January 16, 2009). "The Bush Legacy". Creators Syndicate. Archived from the original on January 20, 2009. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  74. ^ Sowell, Thomas. "'Partial truth' abortion". Townhall. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  75. ^ "The Real 'War on Women'". National Review. June 6, 2012. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  76. ^ a b Hazlett, Thomas (2018). "Thomas Sowell Returns". Reason. Archived from the original on December 2, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
  77. ^ Sowell, Thomas (February 16, 2016). "Tragedy and Choices". Creators Syndicate. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  78. ^ Sowell, Thomas. "Conservatives for Trump?". No. April 26, 2016. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  79. ^ "Thomas Sowell Reverses Position On Donald Trump" – via www.youtube.com.
  80. ^ "Sowell: Politicians using race as their ticket to whatever racket they're running Archived November 8, 2020, at the Wayback Machine." The Ingraham Angle. Fox News. March 6, 2019. via YouTube.
  81. ^ Sowell, Thomas. March 22, 2019. "No Hard Evidence Trump is a racist Archived May 21, 2020, at the Wayback Machine." Fox & Friends. – via RealClearPolitics.
  82. ^ Sowell, Thomas (January 5, 2021). "A vote at the crossroads". Creators Syndicate. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  83. ^ Williams, Walter (July 6, 2020). "Williams: Charter schools and their enemies". Toronto Sun. Archived from the original on August 24, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  84. ^ "The Collapsing Case against Charter Schools". National Review. July 9, 2020. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  85. ^ Carden, Art. "Charters Close The Achievement Gap, Says Thomas Sowell". Forbes. Archived from the original on March 20, 2021. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  86. ^ Williamson, Kevin D. (July 9, 2020). "The Collapsing Case against Charter Schools". National Review. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  87. ^ "Education: Assumptions Versus History". Contemporary Thinkers. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
  88. ^ Robinson, Nathan J. (September 19, 2023). "Is Thomas Sowell a Legendary "Maverick" Intellectual or a Pseudo-Scholarly Propagandist?". Current Affairs. ISSN 2471-2647. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  89. ^ Stewart, James B. (Autumn 2006). "Thomas Sowell's Quixotic Quest to Denigrate African American Culture: A Critique". The Journal of African American History. 91 (4): 459–466. doi:10.1086/JAAHv91n4p459. JSTOR 20064129. S2CID 141293584. Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  90. ^ Ondaatje 2010, p. 33.
  91. ^ Chachere, Bernadette P. (December 11, 2015). "The economics of Thomas Sowell: A critique of markets and minorities". The Review of Black Political Economy. 12 (2): 163–177. doi:10.1007/BF02873530. S2CID 154870459.
  92. ^ a b Ford, Richard Thompson (October 11, 2013). "The Simple Falsehoods of Race". The American Interest. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  93. ^ a b Wilson, William Julius (June 24, 1984). "Hurting the Disadvantaged". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 10, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  94. ^ a b Coughlin, Richard M. (December 1995). "Book Reviews: Comparative Politics. "Race and Culture: A World View by Thomas Sowell"". American Political Science Review. 89 (4): 1064–1065. doi:10.2307/2082585. JSTOR 2082585. S2CID 147307339.
  95. ^ Doleac, Jennifer L. (2021). "A Review of Thomas Sowell's Discrimination and Disparities". Journal of Economic Literature. 59 (2): 574–589. doi:10.1257/jel.20201541. ISSN 0022-0515. S2CID 236338788. Archived from the original on January 19, 2022. Alt URL Archived November 23, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
  96. ^ Williamson, Kevin D. (December 1, 2011). "Thomas Sowell: Peerless Nerd, The truth about one of America's Giants". commentarymagazine.com. Archived from the original on July 20, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  97. ^ Nordlinger, Jay (August 29, 2005). "Chewing Nails". www.nationalreview.com. Archived from the original on December 18, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
  98. ^ Forbes, Steve (November 4, 2015). "Turning the Page on 2015". Forbes.com. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
  99. ^ Higgins, James (Spring 2001). "Tom Sowell in Practice and Theory". Claremont Review of Books. Vol. 1, no. 3. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved December 16, 2020. Higgins describes Sowell as having written a "brilliant trilogy on culture and societies (Race and Culture, Migrations and Culture, and Conquests and Culture). [...] His stature must be attributed to his ability to bring light where there is darkness and logic where there is confusion to public policy in general and economics in particular."
  100. ^ a b "Thomas Sowell – Seeing Clearly". AEI. December 19, 2005. Archived from the original on December 8, 2014. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  101. ^ a b c Joffe, Josef (March 1995). "Nature, Nurture, Culture". Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
  102. ^ Forbes, Steve. "Turning The Page On 2015". Forbes. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  103. ^ a b Plaut, Steven (December 1, 1983). "Unconventional Truths". Commentary Magazine. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  104. ^ Hanke, Steve H. (July 1, 2020). "Thomas Sowell at 90 Is More Relevant Than Ever". Cato. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2021.,
  105. ^ Taylor, John B. (June 30, 2020). "Happy Birthday and a Terrific New Book by Thomas Sowell". Economicsone. Archived from the original on June 25, 2021. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  106. ^ Cohen, Carl (April 2004). "Affirmative Action Around the World by Thomas Sowell". Commentary. Archived from the original on June 27, 2021. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  107. ^ Machan, Tibor (September 1985). "Marxism Demystified". Reason. Archived from the original on June 23, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  108. ^ Shermer, Michael (September 6, 2011). "Liberty and Science". Cato Institute. Archived from the original on July 27, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  109. ^ "Clear Thinking on Race". National Review Online. National Review. April 16, 2013. Archived from the original on November 11, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  110. ^ Pinker, Steven (2002), The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, New York: Penguin Books, pp. 286–296
  111. ^ Sailer, Steve (October 30, 2002). "Q&A with Steven Pinker, author of The Blank Slate". United Press International. Archived from the original on December 5, 2015. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  112. ^ Haidt, Jonathan (2012), The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, New York: Vintage Books, pp. 338–340
  113. ^ Jenkins, Holman W. (June 29, 2012). "The Weekend Interview with Jonathan Haidt: He Knows Why We Fight". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on May 27, 2019. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  114. ^ "The shameful blackout of Thomas, Sowell and Williams". torontosun. Archived from the original on October 27, 2021. Retrieved June 7, 2022.
  115. ^ Sowell, A Personal Odyssey, pp. 162–163, 253, 278.
  116. ^ "Thomas Sowell Facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Thomas Sowell". www.encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on July 20, 2016. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  117. ^ "Sowell, Thomas, 1930–". search.credoreference.com. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  118. ^ Jim Nelson Black (2004). "Freefall of the American university". Nashville WND Books.
  119. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Archived from the original on December 3, 2021. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
  120. ^ Thomas Sowell. "Hoover Institution – Fellows – Thomas Sowell". Hoover.org. Archived from the original on June 9, 2010. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
  121. ^ "Hoover Fellow Thomas Sowell Receives Lysander Spooner Award for Applied Economics". Hoover Institution. March 11, 2004. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  122. ^ "Economic Facts and Fallacies Summary". getAbstract. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  123. ^ Berdell, John. 2007. "On Classical Economics Archived July 1, 2020, at the Wayback Machine" (review). EH.net. Economic History Association.
  124. ^ O'Driscoll Jr., Gerald P. 2016. "Wealth, Poverty and Politics: An International Perspective" (review). Cato Journal 36:196–206. S2CID 132598832.

Further reading

External links