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Is Reality Optional? And Other Essays

thomas sowell

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Sowell challenges all the assumptions of contemporary liberalism on issues ranging from the economy to race to education in this collection of controversial essays, and captures his thoughts on politics, race, and common sense with a section at the end for thought-provoking quotes.

202 pages, Paperback

First published October 1,1993

This edition

Format
202 pages, Paperback
Published
November 1, 1993 by Hoover Institution Press
ISBN
9780817992620
ASIN
0817992626
Language
English

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About the author

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thomas sowell

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Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social philosopher, and political commentator. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. 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. He was a recipient of the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush in 2002.
Sowell was born in Gastonia, North Carolina and grew up in Harlem, New York City. 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. 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. 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. He was offered a position as Federal Trade Commissioner in the Ford administration, and was considered for posts including U.S. Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration, but declined both times.
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. His views are described as conservative, especially on social issues; libertarian, especially on economics; or libertarian-conservative. He has said he may be best labeled as a libertarian, though he disagrees with the "libertarian movement" on some issues, such as national defense.

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Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 32 votes)
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32 reviews All reviews
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raingreen25
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A welcome counterpoint

This collection of short essays, in many instances, cuts through BS succinctly, and while most of my contemporaries will not find it palatable, for that reason, it deserves our attention. All Sowell expects of his readers is that they have some factual basis for their thoughts and deeds and that we treat each other honestly on that basis. This can indeed be big medicine for baby boomers such as myself swept up in the tidal forces of the political economy. This does not mean that I accept his thinking wholesale, only that it does highlight glaring inconsistencies in what is said and done.
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0xyg2n
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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a goldmine of truth simply explained

His short essays were full of wisdom gained from experience. The points Sowell makes reflects his constant listening and observing then drawing and intelligent conclusion. His essays while serious are expressed with humor. Very educational.
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lipe44
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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So good! It’s sad how relevant it still is though.
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internetworking
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Newspaper columns, of varying degrees of topicality. It helped to have lived through the times, I suspect. But also generally philosophical issues, and historical parts.
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zztl9
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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unfortunately, i do not agree with some of the things in this collection of essays, i did not read them fully, but once i saw the one about china and birth control, i really wanted to drop this book.
it's ok to understand that you can't sustain a growing population economically, and take measures so that fewer get to live in poverty in the future...how can a person who, in theory, understands so much come and blame that?! measures like that can also help curb the rate at which we are depleting our planet's resources...we don't just live right now, and just for ourselves, we have a responsibility to think and care for our future generations. blaming china's child policy from the past is a sign of incredible selfishness. i do not agree with this book, i can't. we only have one planet, and the future generations who get it matter, resources are not infinite, even if maybe the author here assumes they magically come from somewhere...he is not the one to talk to me about the economy then, if he does not get what happened in china with the child policy. i can come and ask "is reality optional?" when you just want to see things in a specific way...resources are finite, and nobody wants or should want for their people to live in poverty...what a limited perspective, the one from that essay. our purpose in life is not to just multiply, and our quality of living matters, every leader should understand this, and care about their people's quality of living, and have some long-term perspective, not just the right here and right now.
i draw a hard line at china's child policy, i believe i understand the mechanism behind that decision, and i agree with it, not the essay, if population would have kept growing at the rate at which it was growing when the decision was made, many, many, many people would have suffered from poverty in the future, it was most likely not an easy decision, but a necessary one.
DNF.

for context, china's one child policy started 1980, and it ended in 2016.
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Erydien
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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The divergent of intellectuals and influx of hysterical ideas. The social and draconian approach of the anointed. Thomas Sowell is a man alone with the foresight of what make sense in the free market. No solutions but trade-offs.
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Veldenava7
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This was a fast read of some of Sowell's essays. Well worth the time.
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