Controversial Essays

by Thomas Sowell

Overview

One of conservatism's most articulate voices dissects today's most important economic, racial, political, education, legal, and social issues, sharing his entertaining and thought-provoking insights on a wide range of contentious subjects. —"This book contains an abundance of wisdom on a large number of economic issues." —Mises Review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780817929923
Publisher:	Hoover Institution Press
Publication date:	09/01/2002
Series:	Hoover Inst Press Publication
Pages:	322
Sales rank:	319,374
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Thomas Sowell is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy 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.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
Part I	Economic Issues
	Drugs and Politics	3
	The Real Revolutionaries	6
	India Unbound	9
	Capital Gains and "Trickle Down"	12
	No Sense of Proportion	15
	Headline News	18
	Warrior in a 200-Year War	21
	The Role of the Rich	24
	Perennial Economic Fallacies	27
	Sweatshops at Home and Abroad	30
	Sanity in San Francisco	33
	The End of Montgomery Ward	36
	"Saving" Social Security	39
	Social Security vs. Privatization	42
	Minimum Journalism	45
	Merit and Money	48
Part II	Racial Issues
	Routine Cruelty	53
	Losing the Race	56
	Reparations for Slavery?	59
	The Lessons of Indonesia	62
	Blacks and Bootstraps	65
	"Racism" in Word and Deed	68
	Sweeping Success Under the Rug	71
	Sorting By Race	74
	The Magic Word	77
	Race and the New Century	80
	"Access" to Responsibility	83
Part III	Political Issues
	Poverty and the Left	89
	"Useful Idiots"	92
	Facts versus Dogma on Guns	95
	Global Hot Air	98
	"Campaign Finance Reform" Follies	101
	Ugliness in Yosemite	104
	State Stealing	107
	Loving Enemies	110
	Microsoft and Campaign Finance Reform	113
	Lying Statistics	116
	Are We Still Americans?	119
	Pacifism and War	122
	Intended Consequences	125
	Islam and the West	128
	Pandering to the Anointed	131
	Green Bigots versus Human Beings	134
	Another Outrage	137
	The Best of the Century	140
Part IV	Educational Issues
	The Wrong Filter	145
	Too Many Ph.D.s?	148
	"No Excuses"	151
	Back Door Quotas	154
	We Are All "Dropouts"	157
	School to School?	160
	The War Against Boys	163
	"Research" Marches On	166
	Let's Hear It for Unfairness!	169
	Does It Add Up?	172
	Diversity versus "Diversity"	175
	Choosing A College	178
	A Painful History	181
	"Forced to Volunteer"	184
	Drugging Children	187
	Goodbye to Sara and Benjamin?	190
	Success Concealing Failure	193
	The Old Neighborhood	196
	Wasting Minds	199
	The "Non-Profit" Halo	202
	Do Facts Matter?	205
	Do Facts Matter? Part II	208
Part V	Legal Issues
	Property Rites	213
	Love Those Killers!	216
	Microsoft and Anti-Trust "Law"	219
	Lessons Not Learned	222
	Law on Trial	225
	Aborted Knowledge	228
	Murder is Murder	231
	McVeigh and the Death Penalty	234
Part VI	Social Issues
	Boomers and Boomerangs	239
	Deep Trouble from Shallow People	242
	Thanksgiving and "Fairness"	245
	Was the Ball Juiced?	248
	The Dangers of "Equality"	251
	Is the Family Becoming Extinct?	254
	Life at the Bottom	257
	Gay Marriage	260
	The Einstein Syndrome	263
	Loose Lips	266
	"The Duty to Die"	269
	Shocked by the Obvious	272
	Families and Dictators	275
	The "Autism" Dragnet	278
	Racial Profiling of Authors	281
	Chandra Levy Clues	284
	Barry and the Babe	287
	Media Fraud	290
	The Insulation of the Left	293
	W. Glenn Campbell (1924-2001)	296
Part VII	Random Thoughts
	Random Thoughts	299

Editorial Reviews

"This book contains an abundance of wisdom on a large number of economic issues." - Mises Review

From the Publisher