Books

Intellectuals and Race

– Intellectuals and Race. Basic Books, New York, 2013.
  The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that puts the American experience in a wholly new light… Intellectuals and Race is not a book about history… [The] historical evidence, as well as demographic,… More

The Thomas Sowell Reader

– The Thomas Sowell Reader. Basic Books, New York, 2011.
These selections from the many writings of Thomas Sowell over a period of a half century cover social, economic, cultural, legal, educational, and political issues. The sources range from Dr. Sowell’s letters, books, newspaper columns, and articles in both… More

Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide To The Economy (5th Edition)

– Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy (5th ed.). Basic Books, December 2014.
This is an updated edition of Basic Economics — a citizen’s guide to economics for those who want to understand how the economy works but have no interest in jargon or equations… In readable language, [Sowell] shows how to critique economic… More

Dismantling America: And Other Controversial Essays

– Dismantling America: And Other Controversial Essays. Basic Books, New York, 2010.
These wide-ranging essays — on many individual political, economic, cultural and legal issues — have as a recurring, underlying theme the decline of the values and institutions that have sustained and advanced American society for more than two… More

Intellectuals and Society

– Intellectuals and Society. Basic Books, New York, 2010.
The influence of intellectuals is not only greater than in previous eras but also takes a very different form from that envisioned by those like Machiavelli and others who have wanted to directly influence rulers. It has not been by shaping the opinions or… More

The Housing Boom and Bust

– The Housing Boom and Bust. Basic Books, New York, 2009.
Sowell offers a tour of the housing boom and bust that has much to say to both the specialist and the non-specialist alike. Drawing on a wide range of sources, decades of scholarship, and his signature style and wit, Sowell exemplifies how what is true is not… More

Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One (2nd Ed.)

– Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One (2nd ed.). Basic Books, New York, 2008.
This revised edition of Applied Economics is about fifty percent larger than the first edition. It now includes a chapter on the economics of immigration and new sections of other chapters on such topics as the “creative” financing of home-buying… More

Economic Facts and Fallacies

– Economic Facts and Fallacies. Basic Books, New York, 2007.
Economic Facts and Fallacies exposes some of the most popular fallacies about economic issues — and does so in a lively manner… These include many beliefs widely disseminated in the media and by politicians, such as mistaken ideas about urban… More

Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy (3rd Ed.)

– Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy (3rd ed.). Perseus Books Group, Cambridge, MA, 2007.
Basic Economics is a citizen’s guide to economics for those who want to understand how the economy works but have no interest in jargon or equations. Sowell reveals the general principles behind any kind of economy — capitalist, socialist, feudal,… More

A Man of Letters

– A Man of Letters. Encounter Books, New York, 2007.
A Man of Letters traces the life, career, and commentaries on controversial issues of Thomas Sowell over a period of more than four decades through his letters to and from family, friends, and public figures ranging from Milton Friedman to Clarence Thomas,… More
View more Books »

Essays

The Day Cornell Died

– "The Day Cornell Died," The Weekly Standard, May 3, 1999, pp. 31-33.
Excerpt: No one who was at Cornell University in the spring of 1969 is ever likely to forget the guns-on-campus crisis that shocked the academic community and the nation. Bands of militant black students forcibly evicted visiting parents from Willard Straight… More

The Nuance Excuse

– "The Nuance Excuse," The Weekly Standard, February 3, 1997, pp, 16-18.
Excerpt: One of the curious things about the bitter battle over preferences and quotas that came to a head in the California Civil Rights Initiative is how many critics of affirmative action were missing in action when the issue faced its first test at the… More

Have The Democrats Really Changed? — A Debate

– "Have The Democrats Really Changed? -- A Debate," Commentary, September 1992, pp. 23-26.
Excerpt: The 1992 Democratic party, led by Governor Bill Clinton and Senator Al Gore, has shed its leftist fads and is once again appealing to the American mainstream. The question which some voters might ask is whether the new approach is a mere façade (a… More

The Scandal of College Tuition

– “The Scandal of College Tuition,” Commentary, August 1992, pp. 23-26.
Excerpt: In a world where parents go into debt to finance their children’s higher education and where alumni, corporations, and Congress are besieged with calls for more donations to colleges and universities, the time is long overdue to ask why college is… More

On the higher learning in America: some comments

– "On the higher learning in America: some comments," The Public Interest, Spring 1990, p. 68.
Excerpt: The most fundamental misconception of many leading institutions of higher learning is that they are primarily institutions of higher learning. Money talks in academia as elsewhere, and what that money says on most campuses is “do research.”… More

‘Affirmative Action’: A Worldwide Disaster

– “'Affirmative Action': A Worldwide Disaster," Commentary, December 1989.
Excerpt: The starting point for rethinking and reform must be a recognition that “affirmative action” has been a failure in the United States and a disaster in other countries that have had such policies longer. Indeed, a growing polarization and… More

Second Thoughts About The Third World

– "Second Thoughts About The Third World," Harper's Magazine, November 1983, p. 34.
For many people the term “Third World” immediately conjures up images of poverty, distress and exploitation. In “Second Thoughts About the Third World” Thomas Sowell, a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, reminds… More

Poor Aim In War on Bias

– "Poor Aim In War on Bias," The New York Times, August 11, 1981.
Excerpt: One of the tragedies about affirmative action is that there is very little empirical evidence of any benefits to blacks or women out of affirmative action. Further there is reason to believe that it may be counterproductive… ”Justice”… More

Myths About Minorities

– "Myths About Minorities," Commentary, August 1979, p. 33-37.
Excerpt: Will Rogers once said that it’s not ignorance that is so bad, but all the things we know “that ain’t so.” Much of what we “know” about racial and ethnic minorities in America is unsubstantiated and just plain wrong. We “know,” for… More
View more Essays »

Multimedia

The Reality of Multiculturalism

– Video.  Interview with Peter Robinson, Uncommon Knowledge, Hoover Institution, 17 May 2013.
“The Reality of Multiculturalism,” is an excerpt of: “Thomas Sowell discusses his newest book, Intellectuals and Race.”

Thomas Sowell – Progressives, Liberals and Race

– Video.  Interview with Peter Robinson, Uncommon Knowledge, Hoover Institution, 17 May 2013.
“Thomas Sowell – Progressives, Liberals and Race,” is an excerpt of: “Thomas Sowell discusses his newest book, Intellectuals and Race.”

Economic vs. Political Decision Making

– "Economic vs. Political Decision Making." Clip 1/4. An Address by Thomas Sowell to the Institution for World Capitalism. Jacksonville, Florida, 14 October 1993.

The Economic Lot of Minorities

– “The Economic Lot of Minorities,” interview with William F. Buckley Jr., Firing Line, SECA, 12 November 1981.