Thomas Sowell has published a large volume of writing. His dozen books, as well as numerous articles and essays, cover a wide range of topics, from classic economic theory to judicial activism, from civil rights to choosing the right college. Please contact your local newspaper editor if you want to read the THOMAS SOWELL column in your hometown paper.
Soaring oil prices have revived the old bogeyman that the world is running out of oil. Economics is a great field for nostalgia buffs because the same old fallacies keep coming back, like golden oldies in music. Back in 1960, a best-selling book titled “The...
With oil prices passing the record-breaking $60 a barrel level and heading even higher, the word “crisis” is now being used and all sorts of political “solutions” are being proposed. Is there really a crisis? One of the dictionary definitions...
Bright children and their parents have lost a much-needed friend with the recent death of Professor Julian Stanley of Johns Hopkins University. For decades he not only researched and ran programs for intellectually gifted students, he became their leading advocate in...
“Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation” by Professor Allen C. Guelzo of Gettysburg College, that sets Lincoln in the context of the world in which he lived.
Back in June, this column pointed out that it is impossible to fight a war without heroism — but that you would never know that from the mainstream media. Nothing heroic done by American troops in Iraq is likely to make headlines in the New York Times or be...
Every August, there are some Americans who insist on wringing their hands over the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, so it was perhaps inevitable that such people would have an orgy of wallowing in guilt on the 60th anniversary of that tragic...
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Sometimes I have so much to do that I don’t do anything. As a result of “evolving standards” and “nuanced” judicial decisions, we no longer have clear-cut rights. We have a ticket to a crapshoot in a...
Those who want to see judges who will apply the law instead of imposing their own policies face not only political obstruction to the appointment of such judges but also calculated confusion about the very words used in discussing what is at issue. Judges who impose...
A recent e-mail from a dedicated teacher illustrates a problem that has received far too little attention. In her kindergarten class was a little black girl who did well except for getting a very obvious question wrong. It turned out that the little girl had no...
There have been many bitter complaints from teachers and principals about the Bush administration’s “No Child Left Behind” act — and more specifically about having to “teach to the test” instead of doing whatever teachers and...
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Usually I like four-star hotels better than five-star hotels. The four-star hotels tend to be comfortable and attractive places with amenities, but without the pretentiousness and fussiness of five-star hotels. It is amazing how...
Nature and man have combined to make Africa the most tragic of the continents — and the men who did this have been both black and white. The great French historian Fernand Braudel said, “In understanding Black Africa, geography is more important than...
The official declarations coming out of the G8 meetings in Scotland, as well as the raucous demonstrations surrounding those meetings, talk about saving Africa. But, looking back over the decades and generations, Africa has been “saved” so many times that...
In this era, when indignation has replaced thought for many people, it should not be surprising that the very title of my book “Black Rednecks and White Liberals” should have provoked angry reactions and bitter denunciations, even from people who never...
In addition to the havoc wrought by the judiciary in our times, there is the havoc wrought on the judiciary itself by others. Some have blamed the murders of a judge not long ago, and the murder of another judge’s family, on critics of judicial activism. But, in...
When it comes to judicial nominees, especially nominees to the Supreme Court, you might think that the only thing that matters — the thing that trumps all other considerations — is whether the nominee is for or against legalized abortions. Many people are...
Our era might be described in the famous phrase used to describe the era of the French Revolution — “the best of times and the worst of times.” It is the best of times in terms of life expectancy and a level of economic prosperity exceeding anything...
One of the ironies of our time is that economists have been discovering the importance of law, as such — as distinguished from the specific merits of particular laws — while judges seem increasingly to be losing sight of the rule of law. “I can...
My reaction to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s retirement was almost as positive as my reaction in 1981 was negative when the Reagan administration announced that they were going to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. It wouldn’t matter if all nine...
Recent shocking Supreme Court decisions may at least wake up those people who have been saying glibly that the Senate has been spending too much time fighting over judicial nominees, instead of getting back to the “real” issues. What is more real than the...
You may own your own home and expect to live there the rest of your life. But keep your bags packed, because the Supreme Court of the United States has decreed that local politicians can take your property away and turn it over to someone else, just by using the magic...
Three-quarters of a century! It is hard to believe that I am that old but arithmetic is uncompromising. This means that I have lived through nearly one-third of the entire history of the United States. The changes in my life — and still more so in the life of...
Summer vacations are used for many things. Some parents use the long summer vacation from schools and colleges to get their children to read books that are different from the steady diet of a liberal-left view of the world that they get during the school year. These...
Back in the days of the Hapsburg Empire, there was a town in Bohemia called Budweis. The people in that town were called Budweisers and the town had a brewery which produced beer with the same name — but different from the American Budweiser. Like many...
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