The Economics and Politics of Race

Rating:
Summary: Eye opening
Review: A wonderfully written comparision of the successes and failures of various races and cultures. Sowell has no problem pointing out how some races have more "human capital" than others and therefore are historically more successful.

Rating:
Summary: Eye opening
Review: A wonderfully written comparision of the successes and failures of various races and cultures. Sowell has no problem pointing out how some races have more "human capital" than others and therefore are historically more successful.

Rating:
Summary: Cultural relativism under attack
Review: The message of Thomas Sowell's "The Economics and Politics of Race" is simple and easy to understand: human cultures are not equal and some of them are better than others, their patterns of values having a more decisive role in the social perfomance of their respective members than any alleged, or even real and appaling, discrimination.

Sowell demonstrates that ethnic groups perform differently, even when they are subjected to a similar hostile social condition, like the chinese, the jews or the blacks in the USA, in the beginning of the 20th century.

The reason? A strong commitment, or not, to such values as hardworking, stable family ties and a firm will of improving their own social fate rather than blaming third ones by that same fate.

Similarly, when the pretense source of damage disappears - for example, in societies where certain ethnic groups are largely the majority and "bias" against them is inexistent -, not only their poor social behavior does not vanish, but, contrarily, worsens in a terrible way...

Concluding, culture really matters!

Rating:
Summary: An important book by one of our most provocative thinkers
Review: This author is cited by Justice Clarence Thomas as one of the most important intellects of the 20th century. Further, he claims this book more than any other single book was the catalyst which provoked him to throw his hat into the public arena. More attention needs to be paid to this special book

Rating:
Summary: combination of two of Sowell's interasts
Review: Thomas Sowell has written both about race and economics in other books so it was inteersting to see Sowell combine these tow areas like this. He looks at historical reaosn to look at why certain areas of the world wer bale to acquire wealth while others did not. He looks at how different group's migrations to different parts of the world were similar, similar to the race trilogy. He also looks at the first world and the third world now looking to explain their differences and histories