Intellectuals and Race, Thomas Sowell
Intellectuals and Race, Thomas Sowell
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Intellectuals and Race

Author: Thomas Sowell

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Unabridged: 5 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/21/2013


Synopsis

Intellectuals and Raceis a radical book in the original senseone 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. Intellectuals have played a major role in racial issues throughout the centuries. Though their individual views may differ, as a whole their views tend to group, and just over the course of the twentieth century, they have shifted from one end of the spectrum to the other. Surprisingly, these radically different views of race were held by intellectuals whose views on other issues were often very similar. Intellectuals and Raceis not, however, a book about history, even though it has much historical evidence, as well as demographic, geographic, and economic evidenceall of it directed toward testing the underlying assumptions about race that have prevailed at times among intellectuals in general, and especially at their highest levels. Nor is this simply a theoretical exercise. Sowells ultimate concern is the impact of intellectual movements on the larger society, both past and present. These ideas and crusades have ranged widely from racial theories of intelligence to eugenics to social justice and multiculturalism. In addition to in-depth examinations of these and other issues,Intellectuals and Raceexplores the incentives, 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 but for societies as a whole.

About Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell has taught economics at Cornell, UCLA, Amherst, and other academic institutions, and his Basic Economics has been translated into six languages. He is currently a scholar in residence at the Hoover Institution, at Stanford University. He has been published in both academic journals and such popular media as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Fortune and writes a syndicated column that appears in newspapers across the country.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill on August 26, 2020

Intellectuals and Race is a refreshingly honest, but rare, discussion of race and the history of intellectuals and race in the western world. Sowell is a real thinker who has no use for the politically correct pabulum our culture is drenched in today. Sadly, far too many of our black youths who idol......more

Goodreads review by Mike on September 17, 2020

October 2014 I did not find this well written, but very interesting. His thesis is that intellectuals in the 1900s blamed race differences simply on genetics (social Darwinism) and that modern intellectuals blame race differences simply on the racism of society. Neither of these are correct. This bo......more

Goodreads review by Cav on July 20, 2021

"There is no subject that is more in need of dispassionate analysis, careful factual research and a fearless and honest discussion than is race. Ideally, we might look to intellectuals for such things. But it is also true that the mental skills and verbal dexterity of intellectuals can be used to ev......more

Goodreads review by Kofi on November 25, 2022

This is stellar work. Sowell argues that disparities in outcome are not evidence of racism or injustice. He further argues that there are geographical and demographic factors that work internally to produce disparities—an often ignored fact by the intellectual elites who like to look at everything e......more