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. Even government leaders with disdain or contempt for intellectuals have had to bend to the climate of opinion shaped by those intellectuals.

Intellectuals and society not only examines the track record of intellectuals in the things they have advocated but also analyzes the incentives and constraints under which their views and visions have emerged. It has not been by shaping the opinions or directing the actions of the holders of power that modern intellectuals have most influenced the course of events, but by shaping public opinion in ways that affect the actions of power holders in democratic societies, whether or not those power holders accept the general vision or the particular policies favored by intellectuals.

One of the most surprising aspects of this s Great product! .

Economic Facts and Fallacies

Economic facts and fallacies exposes some of the most popular fallacies about economic issues-and does so in a lively manner and without requiring any prior knowledge of economics by the reader. These include many beliefs widely disseminated in the media and by politicians, male-female economic differences, income differences, as well as economics fallacies about academia, about race, such as mistaken ideas about urban problems, and about Third World countries.

. Written in the easy-to-follow style of the author's Basic Economics, this latest book is able to go into greater depth, with real world examples, on specific issues. One of the themes of economic facts and fallacies is that fallacies are not simply crazy ideas but in fact have a certain plausibility that gives them their staying power-and makes careful examination of their flaws both necessary and important, as well as sometimes humorous.

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Discrimination and Disparities

This revised and enlarged edition also analyzes the human consequences of the prevailing social vision of these disparities and the policies based on that vision--from educational disasters to widespread crime and violence. Others believe that those who are less fortunate are victims of the more fortunate.

Discrimination and disparities gathers a wide array of empirical evidence to challenge the idea that different economic outcomes can be explained by any one factor, exploitation, be it discrimination, or genetics. An enlarged edition of thomas Sowell's brilliant examination of the origins of economic disparitiesEconomic 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.

Intellectuals and Race

The views of individual intellectuals have spanned the spectrum, but the views of intellectuals as a whole have tended to cluster. Thomas sowell's incisive critique of the intellectuals' destructive role in shaping ideas about race in AmericaIntellectuals and Race is a radical book in the original sense of one that goes to the root of the problem.

Moreover, these radically different views of race in these two eras were held by intellectuals whose views on other issues were very similar in both eras. Intellectuals and race is not, as well as demographic, a book about history, however, even though it has much historical evidence, geographic, economic and statistical evidence-- all of it directed toward testing the underlying assumptions about race that have prevailed at times among intellectuals in general, and especially intellectuals at the highest levels.

In addition to in-depth examinations of these and other issues, the visions and the rationales that drive intellectuals at the highest levels to conclusions that have often turned out to be counterproductive and even disastrous, not only for particular racial or ethnic groups, Intellectuals and Race explores the incentives, but for societies as a whole.

The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that puts the American experience in a wholly new light. Nor is this simply a theoretical exercise. The impact of intellectuals' ideas and crusades on the larger society, both past and present, is the ultimate concern. These ideas and crusades have ranged widely from racial theories of intelligence to eugenics to "social justice" and multiculturalism.

Indeed, these views have clustered at one end of the spectrum in the early twentieth century and then clustered at the opposite end of the spectrum in the late twentieth century.

Wealth, Poverty and Politics

Among the more heartening findings from history are the individuals, groups and nations that have risen from poverty and backwardness to prosperity and achievements on the frontiers of human progress. After an extensive examination of factors behind the economic differences between nations and within nations -- including geographic, from John Rawls to Thomas Piketty and Nobel laureates in economics Paul Krugman, cultural and political factors -- the last section of the book is a searching critique of leading income redistributionists, demographic, Angus Deaton and Joseph Stiglitz.

A revised and enlarged edition of thomas sowell's essential examination of differences of wealth and income between nations and within nationsWealth, Poverty and Politics challenges the assumptions, the definitions, the evidence and the reasoning of most of what is said about differences of income and wealth by people in the media, in academia and in politics.

Among the more painful findings are counterproductive creeds and policies that have needlessly prolonged poverty and dependency among lagging groups in countries around the world, and whipped up resentments -- and sometimes violence -- against more productive and successful minorities in many places and times.

Although wealth, poverty and politics offers many new analyses and insights, from various parts of the ideological spectrum, it is essentially a fact-based study which subjects many beliefs, to the ultimate test of empirical evidence. Basic Books. In each case, the analysis follows where the facts lead, whether that is verification, refutation or some combination of the two.

Its guiding principle is expressed in a quotation from the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan that opens the final section of the book: "You're entitled to your own opinions, but you're not entitled to your own facts.

Basic Economics

In readable language, he shows how to critique economic policies in terms of the incentives they create, rather than the goals they proclaim. Basic Books. Bestselling economist thomas Sowell explains the general principles underlying different economic systems: capitalist, socialist, feudal, and so on. Drawing on lively examples from around the world and from centuries of history, Sowell explains basic economic principles for the general public in plain English.

With clear explanations of the entire field, from rent control and the rise and fall of businesses to the international balance of payments, this is the first book for anyone who wishes to understand how the economy functions. Basic Books. The bestselling citizen's guide to economicsBasic Economics is a citizen's guide to economics, written for those who want to understand how the economy works but have no interest in jargon or equations.

This fifth edition includes a new chapter explaining the reasons for large differences of wealth and income between nations. Basic Books.

Economic Facts and Fallacies, 2nd edition

Basic Books. These fallacies include many beliefs widely disseminated in the media and by politicians, such as fallacies about urban problems, income differences, about race, as well as economic fallacies about academia, male-female economic differences, and about Third World countries. Sowell shows that fallacies are not simply crazy ideas but in fact have a certain plausibility that gives them their staying power--and makes careful examination of their flaws both necessary and important.

Basic Books. Basic Books. Thomas sowell's indispensable examination of the most popular economic fallaciesIn Economic Facts and Fallacies, Thomas Sowell exposes some of the most popular fallacies about economic issues in a lively manner that does not require any prior knowledge of economics.

Black Rednecks and White Liberals

Basic Books. Over the last half century poor whites and most blacks have moved up in class and affluence, but the ghetto remains filled with black rednecks. As late as the 1940s and 1950s, he argues, lawless, poor Southern rednecks were regarded by Northern employers and law enforcement officials as lazy, and sexually immoral.

Basic Books. Their attempt to escape, sowell shows, is hampered by their white liberal friends who turn dysfunctional black redneck culture into a sacrosanct symbol of racial identity. Basic Books. Used book in Good Condition. This pattern was repeated by blacks with whom they shared a subculture in the South.

This book presents the kind of eye-opening insights into the history and culture of race for which Sowell has become famous. In addition to black rednecks and white Liberals, the book takes on subjects ranging from Are Jews Generic? to The Real History of Slavery.

The Vision Of The Anointed: Self-congratulation As A Basis For Social Policy

Sowell presents a devastating critique of the mind-set behind the failed social policies of the past thirty years. Basic Books. Hardcover. In this book, he describes how elites—the anointed—have replaced facts and rational thinking with rhetorical assertions, thereby altering the course of our social policy.

Used book in Good Condition. Basic Books. Sowell sees what has happened during that time not as a series of isolated mistakes but as a logical consequence of a tainted vision whose defects have led to crises in education, crime, and family dynamics, and to other social pathologies. Basic Books.

A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

Basic Books. Basic Books. Hardcover. Basic Books. A conflict of visions offers a compelling case that these opposing visions are behind the ethical and ideological disputes of yesterday and today. It distinguishes between those with the "constrained" vision, and the "unconstrained" vision, which sees human nature as enduring and self-centered, in which human nature is malleable and perfectible.

This revised edition of a classic analyzes the centuries-long debates about the nature of reason, justice, equality, and power. Basic Books AZ. Thomas sowell's classic analysis of the opposing visions behind today's ethical and ideological disputesControversies in politics arise from many sources, but the conflicts that endure for generations or centuries show a remarkably consistent pattern.

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Black Rednecks and White Liberals

It presents eye-opening insights into the historical development of the ghetto culture that is today wrongly seen as a unique black identity--a culture cheered on toward self-destruction by white liberals who consider themselves "friends" of blacks. The reasons for the venomous hatred of jews, "are jews generic?" Misconceptions of German history in general, and of other groups like them in countries around the world, are explored in an essay that asks, and of the Nazi era in particular, are also re-examined.

Basic Books. This explosive new book challenges many of the long-prevailing assumptions about blacks, about Jews, about Germans, about slavery, and about education. Basic Books. Basic Books. Basic Books AZ. Black rednecks and white liberals" is the capstone of decades of outstanding research and writing on racial and cultural issues by Thomas Sowell.

So too are the inspiring achievements and painful tragedies of black education in the United States. Plainly written, powerfully reasoned, and backed with a startling array of documented facts, Black Rednecks and White Liberals takes on not only the trendy intellectuals of our times but also such historic interpreters of American life as Alexis de Tocqueville and Frederick Law Olmsted.

Hardcover. Used book in Good Condition. In a series of long essays, this book presents an in-depth look at key beliefs behind many mistaken and dangerous actions, policies, and trends.