Thomas Sowell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Thomas Sowell
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Sowell in 1964
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| Born | June 30, 1930 Gastonia, North Carolina, U.S.
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| Spouse(s) |
Alma Parr
(m. 1964; div. 1975)Mary Ash
(m. 1981) |
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| School or tradition |
Chicago School of Economics |
| Doctoral advisor |
George Stigler |
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| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service/ |
 United States Marine Corps |
| Years of service | 1951–1952 |
| Battles/wars | Korean War |
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Thomas Sowell (born June 30, 1930) is an American economist, historian, and political commentator. He is a senior researcher at the Hoover Institution, a famous think tank. Sowell is well-known for his many books and articles. He is a strong voice in the American conservative movement. In 2002, he received the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush.
Sowell was born in Gastonia, North Carolina. He grew up in Harlem, New York City. He faced poverty and family problems, so he left Stuyvesant High School at age 17. He worked many different jobs. He also served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. After his military service, he went to college. He graduated from Harvard University in 1958. He then earned advanced degrees in economics from Columbia University and the University of Chicago. He taught at several universities, including Cornell University and the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1977, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Sowell was an important person in the conservative movement during the 1980s. He influenced other thinkers like economist Walter E. Williams and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He was offered jobs in the government but chose to focus on his writing and research instead. Sowell has written over 45 books on many topics. These include politics, economics, education, and race. He also wrote newspaper columns that appeared in over 150 newspapers. His ideas are often described as conservative or libertarian. He once said that "libertarian" might be the best label for him.
Early Life and Education
Thomas Sowell was born in 1930 into a poor family. This was in Gastonia, North Carolina, a place where Black and white people were kept separate by law. His father died before he was born. His mother, who worked as a housemaid, already had four children. Thomas was adopted and raised by his great-aunt and her two grown daughters. His mother passed away a few years later.
Sowell wrote in his book that he had very few interactions with white people as a child. He even said he didn't know "blond" was a hair color. He remembered living in a small wooden house in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was typical for most Black neighborhoods at the time. The street was unpaved, and they had no electricity or running water. When he was nine, his family moved to Harlem, New York City. They hoped for better opportunities, joining many other African Americans moving North.
He got into Stuyvesant High School, a top school in New York City. He was the first in his family to study past the sixth grade. But he had to leave school at 17 because of money problems and family arguments. He took many odd jobs. He worked long hours in a machine shop and delivered messages for Western Union. He even tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team in 1948.
In 1951, Sowell was called to serve in the military during the Korean War. He joined the United States Marine Corps. Even though he didn't agree with the war and faced unfair treatment because of his race, he found joy in photography. This became his favorite hobby. He left the military with an honorable discharge in 1952.
Academic and Government Work
From 1965 to 1969, Sowell was a professor of economics at Cornell University. He later wrote about a student protest there in 1969. He felt that the students involved had been admitted with lower academic standards. He also said he didn't see the widespread racism that some Black students claimed was present at Cornell.
Sowell taught economics at several universities. These included Howard University, Rutgers University, Cornell, Brandeis University, Amherst College, and the University of California, Los Angeles. He was even offered the chance to lead the economics department at Howard, but he turned it down. Since 1980, he has been a senior researcher at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This job didn't involve teaching, which gave him more time to write his many books.
Sowell appeared on a TV show called Firing Line several times. He discussed topics like the economics of race and making government services private. Over time, Sowell became less confident in the university system. He felt that academic standards were too low and that university rules were unhelpful. He decided to stop teaching after his time at UCLA.
In 1976, Sowell was offered a job as a commissioner for the Federal Trade Commission. This is a government agency that protects consumers. He decided not to take the job because of the politics involved. He was also considered for the job of United States Secretary of Education but declined that too. In 1980, after Ronald Reagan became president, Sowell helped organize a meeting for Black and white conservatives. A young Clarence Thomas was one of the attendees. Sowell was part of President Reagan's economic advisory group. However, he resigned because he preferred to contribute by writing and researching outside of government.
In 1987, Sowell spoke in favor of judge Robert Bork during his Supreme Court nomination hearings. Sowell said Bork was "the most highly qualified nominee of this generation." He also argued that "judicial activism," which is when judges make decisions based on their own views rather than strictly on the law, was not good for minority groups.
Key Ideas and Writings
Sowell's writings cover many topics. These include social issues like race, different ethnic groups, education, and how people make decisions. He also writes about different economic ideas. His nationally published newspaper column appeared in many major newspapers and websites. He wrote about current events, such as media bias, government rules, and minimum wage. He also discussed healthcare, government bureaucracy, and gun control.
He was a frequent guest on The Rush Limbaugh Show. In 2016, at age 86, Sowell announced he would stop writing his column. He said he wanted to focus on his photography hobby. A TV show called Free to Choose features Sowell and other experts. They discuss how freedom and economic choices are connected. A documentary about his life, "Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World," was released in 2021.
Economic and Political Views
Until 1972, Sowell was a registered Democrat. After that, he decided not to join any political party. He often calls himself a "libertarian." This means he believes in individual freedom and limited government. He writes mostly about economics. He supports a free market approach, where the government has less control over businesses. Sowell does not support the Federal Reserve, which is the central bank of the U.S. He believes it has not stopped economic problems or inflation.
Sowell used to be a Marxist, but he became disappointed with it. He strongly disagrees with Marxism now. He wrote a book called Marxism: Philosophy and Economics (1985) to explain his criticisms.
He has also written a series of books about different ways of thinking about politics. In A Conflict of Visions, he talks about where political disagreements come from. In The Vision of the Anointed, he compares conservative/libertarian and liberal/progressive viewpoints. In The Quest for Cosmic Justice, he discusses how some people try to fix the world in ways that can cause problems. His book Intellectuals and Society also explores what he sees as the mistakes of intellectuals.
His book Knowledge and Decisions won an award in 1980. It was praised for explaining the differences between how markets work and how government works. Economist Friedrich Hayek called it a "landmark work."
Sowell does not support minimum wage laws. He argues that the "real minimum wage is always zero" for people who lose their jobs or cannot find work because of these laws. He believes minimum wages especially hurt minority groups who already face challenges. He points out that before federal minimum wage laws in the 1930s, Black unemployment was lower than white unemployment. After these laws, Black unemployment rates became much higher.
Sowell also opposes gun control laws. He argues that they do not save lives but can actually cost lives.
Views on Race and Ethnicity
Sowell supports conservative ideas about race. He has often criticized liberal civil rights leaders. He questions the idea of "systemic racism." He says that people who use the term often don't have a clear idea of what it means. He compared it to propaganda, where ideas are repeated until people believe them.
In several of his books, Sowell challenges the idea that progress for Black people is mainly due to government programs. He argues that many problems faced by Black people today are not unique. He says other ethnic groups and rural people moving to cities have faced similar challenges. He is critical of affirmative action, which gives preferential treatment to certain groups.
He believes that government often does not help minorities as much as people think. In Affirmative Action Around the World, Sowell argues that affirmative action affects many groups. He says it no longer mainly helps Black people. He states: "When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination." He also says that affirmative action can hurt all groups. It can place students in colleges where the standards are too high for them, leading to failure.
In Intellectuals and Race (2013), Sowell discusses differences in IQ scores between groups. He notes that gaps in IQ scores are not unusual between or within ethnic groups. He points out that the difference between Black and white IQ scores today is similar to the difference between the national average and some white ethnic groups in the past, when many new immigrants arrived.
The Einstein Syndrome
Sowell wrote a book called The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late. It is about children who start talking later than usual. Sowell calls this the "Einstein syndrome." He says these children are often wrongly thought to have autism. He includes research from others like Stephen Camarata and Steven Pinker.
Sowell explains that many famous people were late talkers. These include physicists Albert Einstein, Edward Teller, and Richard Feynman. Also, mathematician Julia Robinson and musicians Arthur Rubinstein and Clara Schumann. Sowell believes that some children develop unevenly. This means their brains develop very quickly in areas like analytical thinking. This rapid growth might temporarily take away resources from other areas, like language development.
Political Opinions
In 2009, Sowell wrote that President George W. Bush was "a mixed bag" but "an honorable man." In 2018, he named George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and Calvin Coolidge as presidents he admired.
Views on Donald Trump
Sowell was critical of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. He questioned if Trump had "any principles at all, other than promoting Donald Trump?" However, two weeks before the election, Sowell suggested voting for Trump over Hillary Clinton. He said Trump would be "easier to impeach." In 2018, Sowell said he thought Trump was "better than the previous president," Barack Obama. In 2019, Sowell defended President Trump against accusations of racism.
Views on Joe Biden
In 2020, Sowell wrote that if Joe Biden won the presidential election, it could be a turning point for the United States. He compared it to the fall of the Roman Empire. He said that the Roman Empire fell partly due to internal problems. Sowell believed that if Biden became president, the Democratic Party would have too much control. He worried they might join with the "radical left" and support ideas like "defunding the police."
Education Reform Ideas
Sowell has written a lot about education. He believes the school system in the United States needs big changes. In his book Charter Schools and Their Enemies (2020), Sowell compares charter schools to regular public schools. He found that charter schools generally have much better educational results. He made sure to compare students from similar backgrounds.
Sowell argues that many U.S. schools are failing children. He believes that "indoctrination" (teaching people to accept beliefs without questioning) has replaced proper education. He also thinks that teachers' unions have supported harmful education policies. Sowell says that many schools have become like monopolies for large education systems.
In his book Education: Assumptions Versus History (1986), Sowell looks at education in U.S. schools and universities. He studies the experiences of Black people and other ethnic groups. He identifies what helps them succeed and what causes them to struggle in the American education system.
Personal Life
Thomas Sowell was married to Alma Jean Parr from 1964 to 1975. He married Mary Ash in 1981. He has two children.
Awards and Recognition
- 1982: The Mencken Award for Best Book, for his book Ethnic America: A History.
- 1990: The Francis Boyer Award, from the American Enterprise Institute.
- 1998: The Sydney Hook Award, from the National Association of Scholars.
- 1998: Elected to the American Philosophical Society.
- 2002: The National Humanities Medal, given by President George W. Bush. This was for his many writings that combine history, economics, and political science.
- 2003: The Bradley Prize for his intellectual achievements.
- 2004: The Lysander Spooner Award, for his book Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One.
- 2008: The International Book Award, for his book Economic Facts and Fallacies.
Career Timeline
- Labor economist, U.S. Department of Labor, 1961–1962
- Instructor in economics, Douglass College, Rutgers University, 1962–1963
- Lecturer in economics, Howard University, 1963–1964
- Economic analyst, American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 1964–1965
- Assistant professor of economics, Cornell University, 1965–1969
- Associate professor of economics, Brandeis University, 1969–1970
- Associate professor of economics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1970–1972
- Project director, Urban Institute, 1972–1974
- Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, 1976–1977
- Visiting professor of economics, Amherst College, 1977
- Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 1977
- Professor of economics, UCLA, 1974–1980
- Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, 1980–present
See also
In Spanish: Thomas Sowell para niños
- Greenhouse effect (United States Supreme Court)
- List of newspaper columnists
