A Man of Letters

by Thomas Sowell

Here is a social history of the United States from 1960 to 2005, as reflected in a remarkable series of letters written by the brilliant conservative thinker Thomas Sowell during this controversial and tumultuous period in our nation's history. A Man of Letters features letters Thomas Sowell filled with social commentary and reflections on controversial issues - and addressed to family, friends, and public figures including Milton Friedman, Clarence Thomas, David Riesman, Arthur Ashe, William Proxmire, Vernon Jordan, Charles Murray, Shelby Steele, and Condoleezza Rice.

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A Man of Letters gives you a unique opportunity to see unfolding the recent history of our country from the perspective of one of our most formidable and clear-thinking conservative scholars.

Thomas Sowell on:

• The Brown decision: "The arbitrary psychological projections in Brown no doubt accurately reflect what a middle class white man would feel if magically transformed into a black child and sent off to public school."

• James Baldwin: "Frankly I cannot see what all the shouting is about. It reminds me of a kid I knew in junior high school, who said a few bright things and was black, and therefore was a genius."

• 1960s campus riots: "The great untold story here is the victimization and terrorization of those Negro students who want to get an education."

• Racism and affirmative action: "Now what good is going to come from lower standards that will make 'black' equivalent to 'substandard' in the eyes of black and white students alike? Can you imagine that this is going to reduce racism?"

• Racial identity: "The UCLA administration sent around cards on which faculty members were supposed to state their racial or ethnic identity, as a means of facilitating affirmative action. I checked 'Other' and, in the blank provided, wrote 'Non-racist.'"

• Medical affirmative action: "It is no favor to the black community to send them 'doctors' who have been let through medical school without really learning what they need to know."

• Israel: "Jews…join the peoples of China and India as groups that prosper all over the world - except in their homelands. Stifling policies and bureaucracies seem to be the common denominator in all three cases."

• Equality: "There is no way to produce anything resembling an equal distribution of groups in employment, housing, or anywhere else, except by suppressing the rights of ordinary people to make their own decisions and transferring that power to third parties." 

• Poor countries: "The basic problem of many Third World countries…is that those citizens who have the know-how and drive to increase the national output are - and must be - depicted as parasites by those who lack such talents, but who have academic credentials which impress both others and themselves."

• Black youth: "Today, the combination of racial hype, sociological whining, and the doom-and-gloom rhetoric that has become standard from civil rights 'leaders' have succeeded only in undermining the confidence of many black youngsters."

• Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill: "My theory is that Clarence's problem arose precisely because he did not sexually harass Anita Hill."

• Antitrust law: "Laws are supposed to tell you in advance what you can and cannot do, not just allow government officials to nail you when they don't like what you are doing or want you to do it their way."

• Women in the military: "Do trained killers make the best mothers?"

• Reagan: "Elected on very much the same ideas with which Barry Goldwater was defeated 16 years earlier. What happened in between was a spread of ideas by people like Milton Friedman."

• Immigration and assimilation: "There are vocal movements determined to keep foreigners foreign and supply them with grievances. One of the most ferociously militant Hispanic movements is far better supported by the Ford Foundation than by Hispanics themselves."

• Guilt: "Rich people who feel guilty should see a psychiatrist at their own expense, rather than make public policy at other people's expense."

• 9/11: "As for Colin Powell's reference to 'tragedy,' the bubonic plague was a tragedy but Pearl Harbor was an outrage. Maybe these are just semantic quibbles but I fear the official statements betray a mindset in Washington that is not good."

• Black leaders: "If putting a guilt trip on whites produces benefits, then they will run that play until the defense figures out how to stop it."

"It isn't what you don't know that hurts, goes the old saying, but what you do know that isn't true. Tom Sowell has spent much of his career exposing with solid fact widely accepted ideas whose falsity harms society. For those unfamiliar with Sowell's devastation of Political Correctness, these letters offer a sampling and a peek at the human being behind it. For those familiar with his writing this little volume will strengthen their appreciation of his contribution to American intellectual life. In a way, Tom Sowell is the George Orwell of our time." - Jim Michaels, Editor Emeritus, Forbes magazine

"Thomas Sowell ranks among the most courageous, prolific thinkers today. He defied racial prejudice when he was growing up, and he emerged as the most controversial critic of preferential treatment policies. Nobody does a better job demonstrating the terrible unintended consequences of laws that were supposed to do good. Sowell's provocative letters offer valuable insights about the man and his ideas." -- Jim Powell, author of The Triumph of Liberty