"A masterpiece that deserves to be one of the most influential books of our time. Any honest reader will be informed and enlightened."

—Donald Kagan, Yale University

 

"A gem of a book. A brilliant and learned analysis of the negative effects of racially preferential policies both in the United States and in several other countries around the world."

—Stephan Thernstrom, Harvard University

 

Affirmative Action Around The World (Yale University Press, March 2004) by Hoover fellow Thomas Sowell moves the discussion of affirmative action beyond the United States to other countries that have had similar policies, often for a longer time than Americans have. It also moves the discussion beyond the theories, principles, and laws that have been so often debated to the actual empirical consequences of affirmative action in the United States and in India, Nigeria, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and other countries. Both common patterns and national differences are examined. Much of what emerges from a factual examination of these policies flatly contradicts much of what was expected and much of what has been claimed.

Thomas Sowell is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow in Public Policy at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is the author of numerous books and writes a nationally syndicated column that appears in 150 newspapers. He has taught economics at carious colleges and universities including Cornell, Amherst, and the University of California–Los Angeles.

Affirmative Action Around The World: An Empirical Study
By Thomas Sowell
ISBN# 0-300-10199-6 $28.00
231 pages March 2004

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