2.5
Sowell claims the best explanation for black poverty is not Slavery, Jim Crow, or any external forces to the black community. The black community is impoverished because of their internal culture rooted in southern redneck culture that was not thrifty, hard working, and depended on government power. Black culture as the causation of poverty is proven when comparing other ethnicities that have shown social uplift because of their middle manning occupations, thrifty spending, and avoidance of seizing political power. Promotion of black political power results in white backlash and fuels negative race relations. If black people went for a bottom-up approach of social uplift (Booker T Washington Approach) then they would have risen to the top like Jews, Irish, and Italians. By trying to seek out political power as a way to carve out equality, black people have relied on the government and thus fueled the cycle of lazy culture.

Sowell needs to stick with shorter books so that his weird views don't mix with his scholarship. Throw out his out of place culture war rants, throw out the strange redneck culture narrative, and just keep the books an ethnic comparison. If Sowell focused on how the middle men cultures across the world achieved social uplift and then sought to apply these principles to the af am community. He actually did this in his book Economics and Politics of Race. I would have disagreed with the book but I would have respected the research and insights. It really isn't a secret that there are negative internal influences in any culture, including af am. The question is whether there are policy changes that restrain the powerful from repeating cycles of discrimination. To address children in the ghettos to be more thrifty and get more education while the government is throwing their dads in jail is a dismissive burden of responsibility. Yes, people still need to know choices have consequences but you have to give people the opportunity to take care of themselves. Culture wars promote personal responsibility and "small government" but when it comes to removing obstacles of social uplift beyond cutting social programs, the culture warriors are strangely silent.

Other weird views: Sowell goes on a strange rant that slavery was not that bad in America because it wasn't racist and America got rid of it anyway. People also didn't know that the slave trade so not everyone who supported slavery were racist or I'll will.

It seems like culture warriors understanding of racism is personal sentiment. If someone isn't consciously hating someone of another race then they can't be racist. However, the big problem people had with africans is not hatred but indifference. The reason why people didn't know about the atrocities of the salve trade is not because they hated Africans; it's because they didn't care enough about Africans to understand. Indifference and reducing people as a means to an end, instead of an end in itself, stripped Africans of their humanity.

Moreover, according to Sowell black people sold into slavery were sold by Africans and brown people also enslaved other people, so It's unfair that everyone always is complaining about white people. He thinks there is an unbalance of scholarship that talks about whites enslaving blacks, enslavement elsewhere, which means that the events of the Atlantic Slave Trade are exaggerated atrocities. Even if the Atlantic slave trade was as bad as they say, the only reason why people talk about slavery is black opportunists and white liberals are using white guilt to seize political control.

What is the evidence that academia is using an exaggerated narrative about slavery to control the masses? Roots. Roots, a fiction novel, is leading people astray. Roots is fiction. This is what I mean when I say Sowell ruins his research with crazy culture war rants. Why an academic even cares to address Roots as if he is addressing a fellow scholars research is beyond me. This is like an Astronaut writing a book of scholarship about space and then writing a harsh review of Star Wars because of its inaccurate portrayals of space. It's fiction bro!

Gangster rap!!!! What are we going to do with all these young black men expressing themselves??!! Ahhh!!! We're all gonna die!!!

Seriously, the pathological fear people have over rap is insane. This reminds me of the satanic scare people had over rock music (which was anti establishment, pro drug, pro promiscuity, and non-conventional in it's form) where people would play music backwards to look for messages from the devil. Does rap music have problems of violence and sexism? Yes. Not all rappers but certainly a lot. But if we go down this route we can say that Quentin Tarantino is keeping people in ghettos because he promotes violence. Conservative gun culture could also be seen as a culprit for glorifying violence. We can say westerns, war movies, fast and furious are keeping people impoverished. In other words, by condemning rap music as a root cause (or revealing a root cause) this singles out a genre on the basis of race as if sub cultures are completely sheltered from the general culture at large. In other words, one could equally cherry pick the data and say the general culture is responsible for recycling poverty in black communities. Dismissing rap music in this way also minimizes the helpful capitalist market that has helped many young black men get out of the ghetto. Rap is not just a form; it's a business. By creating a market through freedom of expression and demand for that product many rappers have made careers out of rap and use their status to help others.

While one could say that rap promotes crime culture, one could also say the criminal justice system promotes crime culture. Culture warriors often use the result policies of discrimination as a reason to continue discriminatory policies. Crime is a problem in ghettos, but so is the criminal justice system. the breakdown of the family is a problem, and so are policies that lock up black men. Crime culture is certainly fueled by internal problems, but crime culture is also fueled by those who promote the drug war and tough on crime policies. Drug use is the same across all races but incarceration rates for drugs overwhelmingly hits black communities. So who is doing more damage? What is issue can be addressed more practically? Misogynistic trap artists or policies that imprison legally vulnerable, nonviolent, poor criminals? One suggests capitalistic uplift and freedom of expression. The other suggests big government intrusion and a life of economic dependency on the prison system and if someone is unable to get a job after getting out of prison, dependency on the welfare state. In sum, singling out rap music as a causation for cycles of poverty looses me.

The book gets better when Sowell picks up with education. He rants against diversity initiatives that actually doesn't have anything to do with his main point. But he talks about successful black schools and patterns in those schools. Personally, I don't think direct instruction promotes critical thinking and I don't think standardized testing is the end all be all. Direct instruction seems to be a form of intellectual coddling but usually the schools that do it have high expectations for their students and high respect for authority. It seems that successful schools proactively discipline and give teachers instruction freedom. Often schools that go for direct instruction will have less behavioral problems because they have a high view of authority.

I admire Sowell's ability to look at the facts and to follow them where they lead; to recognize that agendas need to be discarded in order to examine the evidence and to behold the entire, complex picture. I admire his ability to let go of emotional, gut reactions to topics and examine them through a purely logical lens. He takes a penetrating, intellectual look at issues people often discuss in sweeping moral and emotional terms: slavery, affirmative action, culture, conquest, education, and more. He is not an "accessible" writer; he is not "interesting" to read, but his well-document and supported insights are themselves fascinating. This book, a collection of essays on economic and sociological topics, is worth the effort it takes to read it.

Wonderful. Essential.

“Heedless of the past , we are flying blind into the future” - Thomas Sowell

This book was difficult to read, and at times I hated it. Still, it was terribly thought-provoking.

I think the only reasons I have for not giving this give stars is that 1/ Each section felt a little disjointed when you consider the book as a whole and 2/ I pretty much knew everything Sowell write about in it; there was nothing new in it really. More or less going over old ground. However, if you're new to Sowell and you don't fancy wading straight into a big old economics tome, then this is an easy read and good introduction to his writing style and his large body of work. Here he covers some aspects of cultural heritage among groups who you might not assume to have developed in such a fashion and sprinkles the whole thing with his arch wit and humour. For anyone new to Sowell, I suggest checking out a few videos of him on YouTube first. Once familiar with the rich cadences of his voice it becomes important to hear him in anything of his you read, going forward. And that is in no way a bad thing.

Rare dip into non-fiction for me but a book by an author I find brilliant. Thomas Sowell doesn't attempt to convince so much as merely present evidence. His conclusions from the evidence is logical even if it does not follow the typical political rhetoric or expectations, especially from an elderly black scholar who lived through Jim Crow.

If I've some minor criticisms in how it is written, it is not always apparent the reason why he is presenting a specific set of information until *after* it has all been presented. This can lead to a bit of "why are we focusing here?" This is overcome by the clear conclusions afterwards but given that some of the sections are fairly lengthy it can be a bit confusing at first.

Highly recommend to anyone curious about why different races either succeed or fail historically. To be clear, the book does not condemn those failures so much as point to how changes in culture can lead to success no matter what race, background, or discrimination faced.

O carte despre decalaje și diferențe de tot soiul: sociale, culturale, economice, de comportament etc. Sowell este o voce conservatoare lucidă, care prezintă pe îndelete de unde se trage antipatia unor popoare pentru evrei, cum a luat amploare naționalismul german, care sunt originile sclaviei și unde s-a manifestat aceasta, ori care sunt cauzele pentru problema decalajului educațional pe care o are populația de culoare din SUA. Explică aceste teme oferind context istoric/social/cultural și în niciun caz nu le justifică. Nici nu ar avea cum să facă asta, având în vedere că el însuși face parte din comunitatea afro-americană.

Este o carte care nu oferă răspunsuri facile și dezirabile de fiecare dată și care se desparte în destul de multe privințe de o altă lectură pe care am avut-o recent, Understanding Power, de Noam Chomsky. Le recomand insistent pe amândouă.

Fascinating review of historical race data with bold, honest evaluation from an astounding mind

Okay, this guy is a stud. I love the rare academic who will actually shoot straight with you. This was a collection of 6 refreshingly incisive essays that systematically debunked many of the pet beliefs and agendas of today's intelligentsia.

Fantastic approach to race and discrimination. I enjoyed his research about the roots of "redneck culture" originating in Scotland and other fringe areas of the Brittish Empire.

I thought the views on "middle-men minorities" and "segregated schools" were especially insightful. He approaches every topic with a balanced yet incisive perspective.

For example, he forgives Washington's slave ownership. He reminds us that men of fortune during the colonial period viewed their family fortunes as something to preserve and to be passed down to others. Washington viewed his role as a steward and not as an owner of his property (implying that he wasn't at liberty to free his slaves because they were not his to free but his entire family's). Washington freed his slaves in his will because there were no heirs to his estate, thus, releasing Washington from the responsibility of preserving it. Washington thoroughly explained in the will how his slaves would be supported by the estate. Some of his slaves were supported for decades after Washington's death.

He makes a similar defense for Jefferson. He dismisses any historical perspective that pretends the "west" is the originator of evils such as slavery, violence, and conquest. He compares the "west's" treatment of slaves to the "east's" and finds middle eastern and Asian countries less civil and more barbaric in regards to slavery, racism, and conquests. He persuasively argues that had it not been for the West's views of freedom and moral objections to slavery then the rest of the world would never have seen a problem with it. The uniqueness of the West is in the fact that they globally abolished it even when the rest of the world resisted.

Sowell is smart, hard hitting, honest, and freshly independent. His approach to black school's and western slavery will fascinate you. His essays on German culture are especially rewarding. The fact that he is black gives him a certain level of freedom in his criticism of black culture and liberal correctness that makes this book one of a kind.

4.5*
I had heard about Mr Sowell before reading this book, but soon after I started it, questioned myself why I waited this long to read his works. He is a clear writer, straight to the point and explains his thesis well. He taught me new things and made me think differently of current events, history and the possible solutions to our current societal problems.

His well researched book explains the redneck culture and its ongoing influence to American society, more specifically to the black community. He expounds on how liberalism, especially, has bought into this wrong understanding of the African American culture that results in their errant policies to “help” the blacks, but end up doing the opposite.

The only reason for the 4.5 stars is because I believe some of his views on the middleman culture are inaccurate. Outside of that, I wholeheartedly agree with Sowell’s assessment and solutions and recommend this insightful book to everyone, especially the young people who are confused about the racial issues that have been plaguing America throughout its short history.