Thomas Sowell’s honest analytical approach has always stood in stark contrast to the ideologically contaminated research that permeates the field of race relations. He has long emphasized logic and empirical data when analyzing racial topics, and has tempered and critiqued the excesses of advocacy with objectivity. For Sowell, culture matters: differences in attitudes toward work, savings, child rearing, lawlessness, sobriety, familial obligations, education, and personal responsibility are powerful determinants of economic mobility. The fashionable “grievance” theory of American history in which group differences are explained largely in terms of white oppression, Sowell believes, has stymied black progress. This theme is central to his new book, Discrimination and Disparities.
Accordingly, Sowell begins Discriminations and Disparitieswith an analysis of three ethnic groups that have excelled economically despite significant discriminatory obstacles placed in their paths. In this telling, the Jews, the
Get access to this article, plus the entire archive, by subscribing.