Explore the intellectual legacy of economist and social theorist Thomas Sowell with this curated digital archive of Sowell’s scholarly works, including books, essays, articles, and interviews. Read on to discover Sowell’s enduring contributions to economics, race & culture, history, and public policy.

Thomas Sowell Essay Contest and Creator Competition
Books by Thomas Sowell

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Books
Social Justice Fallacies
September 19, 2023 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

The quest for social justice is a powerful crusade of our time, with an appeal to many different people, for many different reasons. But those who use the same words do not always present the same meanings. Clarifying those meanings is the first step toward finding out what we agree on and disagree on. From there, it is largely a question of what the facts are. Social Justice Fallacies reveals how many things that are thought to be true simply cannot stand up to documented facts, which are often the opposite of what is widely believed.

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Books
Charter Schools and Their Enemies
June 30, 2020 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

A leading conservative intellectual defends charter schools against the teachers’ unions, politicians, and liberal educators who threaten to dismantle their success.

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Books
Discrimination and Disparities
March 20, 2018 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

Economic and other outcomes differ vastly among individuals, groups, and nations. Many explanations have been offered for the differences. Some believe that those with less fortunate outcomes are victims of genetics. Others believe that those who are less fortunate are victims of the more fortunate.

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Books
Basic Economics
December 2, 2014 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

The bestselling citizen’s guide to economics

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Books
Intellectuals and Race
March 12, 2013 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

Intellectuals and Race is a radical book in the original sense of one that goes to the root of the problem. The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that puts the American experience in a wholly new light.

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Books
The Thomas Sowell Reader
October 4, 2011 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

A one-volume introduction to over three decades of the wide-ranging writings of one of America’s most respected and cited authors.

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Books
Intellectuals and Society
March 6, 2012 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

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.

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Books
Economic Facts and Fallacies
March 22, 2011 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

Thomas Sowell “both surprises and overturns received wisdom” in this indispensable examination of widespread economic fallacies (The Economist)

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Books
Black Rednecks and White Liberals
April 24, 2006 By Thomas Sowell

via Encounter Books

This explosive new book challenges many of the long-prevailing assumptions about blacks, about Jews, about Germans, about slavery, and about education.

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Books
A Personal Odyssey
February 5, 2000 By Thomas Sowell

via Simon & Schuster

This is the gritty story of one man's lifelong education in the school of hard knocks, as his journey took him from Harlem to the Marines, the Ivy League, and a career as a controversial writer, teacher, and economist in government and private industry. It is also the story of the dramatically changing times in which this personal odyssey took place.

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Books
The Quest for Cosmic Justice
February 5, 2002 By Thomas Sowell

via Free Press

This is not a comforting book -- it is a book about disturbing issues that are urgently important today and enduringly critical for the future. It rejects both "merit" and historical redress as principles for guiding public policy. It shows how "peace" movements have led to war and to needless casualties in those wars. It argues that "equality" is neither right nor wrong, but meaningless.

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Books
Conquests and Cultures
August 10, 2021 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

This book is the culmination of 15 years of research and travels that have taken the author completely around the world twice, as well as on other travels in the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and around the Pacific rim. Its purpose has been to try to understand the role of cultural differences within nations and between nations, today and over centuries of history, in shaping the economic and social fates of peoples and of whole civilizations.

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Books
Late-Talking Children
August 4, 2008 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

The painful and baffling mystery as to why some obviously bright children do not begin talking until long after the “normal” time is explored in this book through personal experiences and the findings of scientific research. The author’s own experiences as the father of such a child led to the formation of a goup of more than fifty sets of parents of similar children.

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Books
The Vision Of The Annointed: Self-Congratulation As A Basis For Social Policy
June 28, 1996 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

One of America’s pre-eminent economists offers a provocative critique of the failures of liberalism

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Books
A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles
June 5, 2007 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

Thomas Sowell’s “extraordinary” explication of the competing visions of human nature lie at the heart of our political conflicts (New York Times)

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Books
Knowledge And Decisions
January 4, 2022 By Thomas Sowell

via Basic Books

With a new preface by the author, this reissue of Thomas Sowell's classic study of decision making updates his seminal work in the context of The Vision of the Annointed, Sowell, one of America's most celebrated public intellectuals, describes in concrete detail how knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout modern society.

Watch Thomas Sowell on Uncommon Knowledge
The Economics and Politics of Race

Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: The Economics and Politics of Race

Mr. Sowell had just produced a blockbuster, called The Economics and Politics of Race: An International Perspective. Any author who writes about the topic of group characteristics is taking a tremendous risk, but Mr. Sowell (a) is not averse to risk and (b) had approached his topic empirically rather than polemically, presenting data that show how the peoples of various regions of the world have fared in different areas of endeavor.

Read Essays by Thomas Sowell
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Economics & Public Policy

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Education Reform & Critique

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Race & Diversity

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Intellectuals & Society

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Culture & Immigration

Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World

Thomas Sowell: Common Sense In A Senseless World

Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World traces Sowell's journey from humble beginnings to the Hoover Institution, becoming one of this era's greatest economists, political philosophers, and prolific authors. Hosted by Jason Riley, a member of "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board, this one-hour program features insights from Sowell and interviews with his close friends and associates, revealing why the intensely private Thomas Sowell is considered by many to be "one of the greatest minds of the past half-century" and "the smartest person in the room."

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