Ever Wonder Why? And Other Controversial Essays
by Thomas Sowell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Thomas SowellEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-11-13
ISBN: 0817947523
Number of pages: 460
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
Book Reviews of Ever Wonder Why? And Other Controversial Essays
Book Review: The brilliance of Sowell
Summary: 5 Stars
Thomas Sowell is well known for bringing sanity and clarity to issues that are often presented from one side by people using fancy rhetoric and "political correctness." Sowell often uses the classical economist's thinking by analyzing issues in terms of trade-offs, incentives, cost-benefit analysis, etc. He also encourages readers to look at empirical evidence and results, not just promises of great results.
Thomas Sowell is arguably the world's foremost expert on issues relating to race and ethnicity, especially issues involving public policy. As a courageous black man, Sowell is not afraid to challenge traditional dogma relating to race and ethnicity issues. He says what many people think but are afraid of saying for fear of being labeled racist. Today if you oppose any policy that is said to help minorities in any way, even if the costs far exceed the benefits, or if the policy really hurts minorities, you are called racist and attacked. Sowell explains why not all policies that are supposed to help minorities actually help them.
Another subject of great interest to Sowell is education. He often writes about the failed policies of some school administrators, what can be done to improve schools, and why improvement is so difficult.
Sowell also writes about law and judicial issues. He writes about the dangers of judicial activism, tort law, and regulation. (It is more interesting than I make it sound).
Of course, Sowell also writes about "visions", or political and social philosophies. He has written books on "visions" in the past and in "Every Wonder Why?" you are given a glimpse of his understanding of the topic.
After growing up in North Carolia and Harlem, Sowell got his B.A. from Harvard in 1958, his M.A. from Columbia in 1959, and his PhD in Economics from the U of Chicago in 1968. He has taught at Cornell, Brandeis, and UCLA. Since 1980 he has been a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. Thomas Sowell is one of the most brilliant minds in the U.S. today and his new book, "Ever Wonder Why?", proves it.
Summary of Ever Wonder Why? And Other Controversial Essays
"The desire of individuals and groups to puff themselves up by imposing their vision on other people is a recurring theme in the culture wars"Thomas Sowell takes on a range of legal, social, racial, educational, and economic issues--along with "the culture wars"--in this latest collection of his controversial, never boring, always thought-provoking essays. From "gun control myths" to "mealy mouth media" to "free lunch medicine," Sowell gets to the heart of the matters we all care about with his characteristically unswerving candor.
Sowell skewers the "mealy mouth media" that calls terrorists "insurgents" and rioters "demonstrators." He reveals how "the idiocy of relevance" in learning has been particularly destructive in the education of minority students at all levels. He explains how a free market and a strict construction of the 14th Amendment would never have permitted the laws that asked Rosa Parks to give up her seat to a white man. And he clarifies the confusion between equal opportunity and equal results that resides behind many kinds of "spoiled brat politics."
With Ever Wonder Why?--drawn from the best of his popular syndicated newspaper columns--Sowell once again takes dead aim at the self-righteous and self-important forces in government, media, education, and other areas of our society, offering the thoughtful perceptions, commonsense insights, and straightforward honesty we have come to expect from one of conservatism's most articulate voices.
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among his published works are Basic Economics, Late Talking Children, and Race and Culture. He has also published in both academic journals and the popular media including Newsweek, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and 150 newspapers that carry his nationally syndicated column.
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