Thomas Sowell

Sowell was born in 1930 into a poor family in Gastonia, North Carolina. 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. His high scores on the College Board examinations 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. Sowell has said that he was a Marxist during his 20s. One of his earliest professional publications was a sympathetic examination of Marxist thought vs. Marxist–Leninist practice. But in 1960, he began to change his mind toward supporting free-market economics after 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, "they certainly weren't going to engage in any scrutiny of the law". Sowell received his Doctor of Philosophy in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968. His dissertation was titled "Say's law and the General glut Controversy". == 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." 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. 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." Sowell was appointed as a member of the Economic Policy Advisory Committee of the Reagan administration, 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". 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." In a review of Sowell's 1987 book, A Conflict of Visions, Larry D. Nachman in Commentary described Sowell as a leading representative of the Chicago school of economics. == 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 and National Review magazines, and 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. Sowell commented on current issues, which include liberal media bias; judicial activism and originalism; abortion; gun control; 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. Sowell was a frequent guest on The Rush Limbaugh Show, in conversations with Walter E. Williams, who was a substitute host for Limbaugh. 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. A documentary detailing his career entitled "Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World" was released by the Free to Choose Network in 2021. 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." Sowell primarily writes on economic subjects, generally advocating a free-market approach to capitalism. Sowell opposes the Federal Reserve, arguing that it has been unsuccessful in preventing economic depressions and limiting inflation. 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." Sowell opposes the imposition of minimum wages by governments, arguing in his book Basic Economics, "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." He goes further to argue that minimum wages disproportionately affect "members of racial or ethnic minority groups" that have been discriminated against. He asserts, "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 teenaged males." Sowell also favors decriminalization of all drugs. 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. He is critical of affirmative action and race-based quotas. He takes issue with the notion of government as a helper or savior of minorities, arguing that the historical record shows the opposite. In Affirmative Action Around the World, Late-talking and the Einstein syndrome Sowell's book The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late was published in 2001. In it, Sowell discusses what he calls the "Einstein syndrome", which refers to the phenomenon of late-talking children. Sowell says these children are frequently misdiagnosed with autism or pervasive developmental disorder. He includes the research of Stephen Camarata and Steven Pinker, among others. Sowell says this trait affected many historical figures who developed prominent careers, such as physicists Albert Einstein, Edward Teller, and Richard Feynman; mathematician Julia Robinson; and musicians Arthur Rubinstein and Clara Schumann. According to Sowell, 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." Sowell said the media was "filtering and spinning" its coverage regarding abortions and has spoken out against sex-selective abortion. In 2018, he named George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and Calvin Coolidge as presidents he liked. During the 2016 Republican primary, Sowell criticized Trump, questioning whether Trump had "any principles at all, other than promoting Donald Trump?" Two weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Sowell recommended voting for Trump over Hillary Clinton, because he would be "easier to impeach." In 2018, when asked on his thoughts of Trump's presidency, Sowell replied, "I think he's better than the previous president [Barack Obama]." During interviews in 2019, Sowell defended Trump against charges of racism. In 2025, Sowell criticized Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs, comparing them to the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariffs from the start of the Great Depression. Sowell warned that the tariffs might set off a global trade war resulting in a "great reduction in international trade". He further cautioned that policy unpredictability might lead to people hanging on to their money, which would cause economic effects similar to those seen in the Great Depression. 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, "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. 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 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. 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. == Reception ==

Classical liberals, libertarians, and conservatives of different disciplines have received Sowell's work positively. Among these, he has been noted for originality, depth and breadth, James M. Buchanan, and John B. Taylor; philosophers Carl Cohen and Tibor Machan; science historian Michael Shermer; essayist Gerald Early; and Jonathan Haidt; and Josef Joffe, publisher and editor of 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." He suggested this may be because "[h]is books rarely engage with the major academic literature on the subject he's writing about" and he often "leaves out crucial pieces of data that would make his position look weaker", citing his writing on minimum wage policy and unemployment as an example. 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". Economist Bernadette Chachere, have criticized some of his work. Criticisms include neglecting discrimination against women in the workforce in Rhetoric or Reality?, Columnist Steven Pearlstein criticized Wealth, Poverty and Politics. == Personal life ==

Sowell was married to Alma Jean Parr from 1964 to 1975, and married Mary Ash in 1981. He has two children. == Legacy and honors ==

(last on right) accepting the 2002 National Humanities Medal on Sowell's behalf • 1982: Mencken Award for Best Book, from the Free Press Association, for his Ethnic America: A History. • 1990: Francis Boyer Award, presented by the American Enterprise Institute. • 1998: Sydney Hook Award, from the National Association of Scholars. • 1998: Elected membership to the American Philosophical Society. • 2002: National Humanities Medal, presented by President George W. Bush, for prolific scholarship melding history, economics, and political science. • 2003: Bradley Prize for intellectual achievement. • 2004: Lysander Spooner Award, presented by Laissez Faire Books, for his Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One. • 2008: International Book Award, from getAbstract, for his book Economic Facts and Fallacies == Career chronology ==

• Labor economist, U.S. Department of Labor, June 1961 – August 1962 • Instructor in economics, Douglass College, Rutgers University, September 1962 – June 1963 • Lecturer in economics, Howard University, September 1963 – June 1964 • Economic analyst, American Telephone & Telegraph Co., June 1964 – August 1965 • Assistant professor of economics, Cornell University, September 1965 – August 1969 • Associate professor of economics, Brandeis University, September 1969 – June 1970 • Associate professor of economics, University of California, Los Angeles, September 1970 – June 1972 • Project director, Urban Institute, August 1972 – July 1974 • Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, July 1976 – March 1977 • Visiting professor of economics, Amherst College, September–December 1977 • Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, April–August 1977 • Professor of economics, UCLA, July 1974 – June 1980 • Senior fellow, Hoover Institution, September 1980–present == Selected publications ==

Books • 1971. Economics: Analysis and Issues. Scott Foresman & Co. • 1972. Black Education: Myths and Tragedies. David McKay Co.. . • 1972. ''Say's Law: An Historical Analysis''. Princeton University Press. . • 1974. Classical Economics Reconsidered. Princeton University Press. . • 1975. Race and Economics. David McKay Co. . • 1980. Knowledge and Decisions. Basic Books. . • 1981. Ethnic America: A History. Basic Books. . • Chapter 1, "The American Mosaic." • 1981. Markets and Minorities. Basic Books. . • 1981. Pink and Brown People: and Other Controversial Essays. Hoover Press. . • 1983. The Economics and Politics of Race. William Morrow. . • 1984. Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality? William Morrow. . • 1985. Marxism: Philosophy and Economics. Quill. . • 1986. Education: Assumptions Versus History. Hoover Press. . • 1987. A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles. William Morrow. . • 1987. Compassion Versus Guilt and Other Essays. William Morrow. . • 1990. Preferential Policies: An International Perspective. • 1993. Inside American Education. New York: The Free Press. . • 1993. Is Reality Optional?: and Other Essays. Hoover. . • 1995. Race and Culture: A World View. . • 1995. The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation As a Basis for Social Policy. Basic Books. . • 1996. Migrations and Cultures: A World View. . . • 1998. Conquests and Cultures: An International History. . • 1998. Late-Talking Children. . • 1999. The Quest for Cosmic Justice. . • 2000. A Personal Odyssey. . • 2000. ''Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy'' (1st ed.). Basic Books. . • 2002. Controversial Essays. Hoover. . • 2002. The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late. . • 2003. Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One. . • 2004. Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. . • 2004. ''Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy'' (revised and expanded ed.). New York: Basic Books. • 2005. Black Rednecks and White Liberals. San Francisco: Encounter Books. . • 2006. Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press. . . . • 2006. On Classical Economics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. . • 2007. A Man of Letters. San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books. . • 2007. Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy (3rd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books. . . • 2008. Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One (2nd ed.). Basic Books. . . • 2008. Economic Facts and Fallacies. Basic Books. . . . • 2009. The Housing Boom and Bust. Basic Books. . • Chapter 5, "The Past and the Future ." • 2010. Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy (4th ed.). Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books. . • 2010. Dismantling America: and Other Controversial Essays. Basic Books. . . • 2010. Intellectuals and Society. Basic Books. . Lay summary. • 2011. The Thomas Sowell Reader. Basic Books. . • 2011. Economic Facts and Fallacies, 2nd edition. Basic Books. • 2013. Intellectuals and Race. Basic Books. . • 2014. Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy (5th ed.). New York: Basic Books. . • 2015. Wealth, Poverty and Politics: An International Perspective. Basic Books. • 2016. Wealth, Poverty and Politics: An International Perspective (2nd ed.). Basic Books. . • 2018. Discrimination and Disparities. Basic Books. . • 2019. Discrimination and Disparities (revised, enlarged ed.). Basic Books. . • 2020. Charter Schools and Their Enemies. Basic Books. . • 2023. Social Justice Fallacies. Basic Books. . Selected essays • • 1975. "Affirmative Action Reconsidered. Was It Necessary in Academia?" (Evaluation Studies 27). Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. . . • 1979. "Status versus Behavior." Washington University Law Review 1979(1):179–188. • 1982. "Weber and Bakke, and the Presuppositions of 'Affirmative Action'." pp. 37–63 in Discrimination, Affirmative Action, and Equal Opportunity: An Economic and Social Perspective, edited by W.E. Block and M.A. Walker. Fraser Institute. . • 2002. "The Education of Minority Children ." pp. 79–92 in Education in the Twenty-First Century, edited by E. P. Lazear. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press. Available via eText. • 2002. "Discrimination, Economics, and Culture." pp. 167–180 in Beyond the Color Line: New Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity in America, edited by A. Thernstrom and S. Thernstrom. Hoover Institution Press. • 2012. "'Trickle Down' Theory and 'Tax Cuts for the Rich'" (Hoover Institution Press Publication 635) Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press. . Google Books: EY3prsH-5bwC. == See also ==