Thomas Sowell Books In Order

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Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, author, political commentator, and a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Thomas often writes from an economically laissez-faire perspective.

In the year 1990, he won the Francis Boyer Award, which is presented by the American Enterprise Institute. In 2002, he received the National Humanities Medal for prolific scholarship melding history, economics, and political science. In 1982, he won the Mencken Award for Best Book for his “Ethnic America: A History”. “Economic Facts” won the International Book Award from getAbstract.

He was born June 30, 1930 in Gastonia, North Carolina to a poor family, later growing up in Harlem, New York. Growing up, his encounters with Caucasians were so limited that he didn’t believe “yellow” was even a hair color. He moved to Harlem, New York City with his mom’s sister (whom he believed was his mom), and his dad died before he was even born.

Thomas recalls that his first memories were of living in a small wooden house located in Charlotte, North Carolina, which was typical of most Black neighborhoods. It was located on an unpaved street and didn’t have any running water or electricity.

They moved when Thomas was nine years old, for greater opportunities, joining in the large-scale trend of African-American migration from the American South to the north. Family quarrels forced Thomas and his aunt to room in other people’s apartments.

He left behind Sowell’s mom, a housemaid that already had four kids. A great-aunt and her two grown daughters adopted Sowell and raised him. His mom died a few years later from complications while she was giving birth to another child.

Thomas qualified for Stuyvesant High School, a prestigious academic high school in New York City, as he was the first in his family to study past the sixth grade.

Due to deteriorated home conditions and financial problems, he dropped out of Stuyvesant High School and worked various jobs to support himself, including as a deliveryman for Western Union and in a machine shop, where he worked long hours. Thomas also tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948. He applied to enter the Civil Service and was eventually accepted, moving to Washington DC.

He served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, after getting drafted in the year 1951. Due to prior experience in photography, he worked in a photography unit.

When he returned to the States, he passed the GED examination and attended night school at Howard University before attending Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude in the year 1958. He received his master’s degree in economics from Columbia University the next year and got his doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968.

He initially chose Columbia University since he wanted to study under George Stigler. After arriving at Columbia and finding out that Stigler moved on to Chicago, Thomas followed him there.

He has said that he was a Marxist “during the decade of his 20s”; accordingly, one of his earliest professional publications was this sympathetic examination of Marixst thought vs. Marxist-Leninist practice. What started to change his mind toward supporting free market economics was studying the potential impact of minimum wages on unemployment of sugar industry workers in Puerto Rico, as a US Department of Labor intern. Workers at the department were surprised by Thomas’ questioning, and he concluded they weren’t going to engage in any kind of scrutiny of the law.

Sowell has taught Economics at Cornell University, Rutgers, Howard University, UCLA, and Brandeis University.

“Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2003. This is a citizen’s guide to economics, for those that want to comprehend exactly how the economy works yet have no interest in equations or jargon. He reveals the general principles behind any sort of economy, be it a socialist, capitalist, feudal, and so on.

In readable language, he shows how to critique economic policies in terms of the incentives they will create, instead of the goals that they proclaim. With clear explanations of the whole field, from rent control and the rise and fall of businesses to the international balance of payments, this is the first book for anybody that wishes to better understand how the economy truly functions.

“Black Rednecks and White Liberals” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2005. This book presents the sort of eye-opening insights into the culture and history of race for which Thomas Sowell has become famous for. As late as the 1940s and the 1950s, he argues, poor Southern rednecks were regarded by Northern law enforcement and employers as being sexually immoral, lawless, and lazy.

It was a pattern repeated by blacks with whom they shared a subculture with in the South. Over the last half century poor whites and most blacks have moved up in affluence and class, however the ghetto remains filled with black rednecks. Their efforts to escape, Sowell shows, is hampered by their white liberal friends that turn dysfunctional black redneck culture into a sacrosanct symbol of racial identity.

The book also takes on subjects ranging from The Real History of Slavery to Are Jews Generic?

“Economic Facts and Fallacies” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2008. Thomas exposes some of the most popular fallacies about economic issues and does so in a lively manner and without requiring any prior knowledge of economics on the reader’s part.

These include many beliefs widely disseminated in the media as well as by politicians. Like mistaken ideas about income differences, urban problems, male-female economic differences, along with economics fallacies about academia, race, and about Third World countries.

One theme of the book is that fallacies are not just simply crazy ideas yet in face have a certain plausibility which gives them their staying power, and makes a careful examination of their flaws both important and necessary. Not to mention being humorous. Written in the easy-to-follow style of the author’s book “Basic Economics”, this book is able to go into greater depth, with some real world examples, on certain specific issues.

One Response to “Thomas Sowell”

1. Velma Jeanne Rzeznik: 2 years ago

   Saw you on Levin tonight. I could listen to you for hours.

   Reply