Race And Culture: A World View [Paperback]

Thomas Sowell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 1995

Encompassing more than a decade of research around the globe, this book shows that cultural capital has far more impact than politics, prejudice, or genetics on the social and economic fates of minorities, nations, and civilization.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sowell ( Ethnic America ) draws on a worldwide range of examples and more than a decade of research in this intriguing exploration of the role of cultural attributes on group advancement. He aims to demonstrate the "reality, persistence, and consequences of cultural differences--contrary to many of today's grand theories based on the supposed dominant role of 'objective conditions,' 'economic forces' or 'social structures.' " He tackles a host of issues: the costs and benefits of residential segregation; how affirmative action primarily helps better-off members of preferred groups; how prominent political leaders are not crucial to group success; how low-scoring groups on intelligence tests do their worst on abstract questions devoid of "cultural bias." Sowell's observations have force, but he sometimes sacrifices depth for breadth. Although he claims to avoid policy prescriptions, he includes facile swipes against multiculturalism and argues, with varying degrees of plausibility, against liberal policies on race. Conservative Book Club selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Sowell, a black conservative and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, moves beyond the domestic focus of his Ethnic America (LJ 6/1/81) to analyze the interplay between the cultural capital and social position of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities around the world. Observing ethnic and racial minorities migrating from country to country, Sowell postulates that existing intergroup cultural values play a predominate role in social status. These values determine which groups follow advances in science, technology, and organization, which fall behind, and which become societal leaders. Sowell concludes that the economic and social condition of many minorities lies not in social and political programs such as affirmative action but in the internal cultural values of the group. Sowell's study undoubtedly will arouse controversy and provoke debate. A valuable addition to minority studies collections in public and academic libraries alike.
Michael A. Lutes, Univ. of Notre Dame Lib., Ind.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (June 16, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465067972
• ISBN-13: 978-0465067978
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #258,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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, Stanford University. He has published in both academic journals in such popular media as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes magazine and Fortune, and writes a syndicated column that appears in newspapers across the country.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Balanced, scholarly treatment of a difficult subject, May 25, 2000

By 

Christopher A. Smith (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Race And Culture: A World View (Paperback)

Race and Culture" would more accurately be titled "Culture and Race". The book is a masterful treatment of cultural differences worldwide and how they have directed the course that our world's societies have taken. Race (the hot-button) get's a less extensive treatment.

On this topic of race, the book is most provocative in Sowell's chapter "Race and Intelligence". Sowell is clear in his analysis and the reader comes away feeling that he has presented a balanced set of findings. Sowell is careful with his assumptions; he extensively reports the results of IQ tests worldwide without going so far as to suggest that these tests actually measure innate intellectual ability. Although he unflinchingly points to differences which fall along racial lines, he also points to the fact that these test scores change over time (dramatically in some cases, with some American immigrant groups acquiring 18 points of IQ as their racial group assimilated into American culture and the academic tradition.)

Differences in test scores, therefore, are presented as differences in performance. It is undeniable that some groups, such as African Americans, consistently score lower on certain standardized tests. It takes a balanced look at all the data to understand why. As an African American who is interested in such issues, I came away feeling that Sowell had not ducked the hard issues, considered all of the evidence, and reached valid conclusions.

At the end of the day it is clear that Sowell is an economist; one can almost see supply and demand curves superimposed on the page behind the wording. If there is a flaw in the book it is that his academic viewpoint as an economist skews his view of human nature. We're presented with repeated examples of the un-economic results of discrimination. While we know that this is true, we also know that people often make un-economic decisions for emotional reasons.

This, however is nit-picking (it is easy to bash economists). Overall this is a balanced treatment and an impressive work of scholarship that will leave the reader thinking. This is a book to which I'll refer in the future.

44 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Race and Culture" runs against established views, June 15, 1998

By 

Günther Miklitz (Bonn) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Race And Culture: A World View (Paperback)

Thomas Sowell, a black senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University has aroused much controversy with his 329 page-long book on race and culture. His thesis runs contrary to most current trends in social sciences. And it seems incompatible with most assumptions underlying government policies and established academic notions with regard to racial and ethnic minorities.

Sowell's thesis maintains that differences in productive skills and cultural values are the key to understanding the advancement or regression of ethnic groups. In his opinion, skills and values make up the cultural capital of an ethnic group or of a people, whereas politics, environmental factors and genetics do not play the important roles widely attributed to the success of a group or nation.

Since Sowell's central topic is the universe of values, the reader will easily accept the general layout of his book: a world view. In order to make his universal perspective convincing, Sowell pays his respect to a one page long list of scholars world wide from whose wisdom he has been able to draw.

What is the result of Sowell's approach to "Race and Culture"? We learn that certain peoples have been more or similarly successful than others because of their human capital, their particular pattern of cultural values which enabled them to perform better than others. The Jews are said to have prospered wherever they went in the world because they were experts in the textile business. Italian immigrants we! re often similarly successful in the field of wine production. The Germans are said to have always been successful farmers and craftsmen, and the Chinese succeed everywhere as retailers and restaurant owners.

In one chapter he goes into the question whether intelligence tests allow any conclusion as to the genetic supremacy of one race over the other. The answer is negative. Chinese and some other immigrant groups have been economically and socially successful in America regardless of how they score on intelligence tests. This proves, in his opinion, that inherited traditional values and skills as well as the culturally based capacity to adapt to new conditions are the essential factors, and not genetics. He says the assumption that always environmental conditions are the determining factors of a group's success or failure is wrong. Consequently, he does not think that a disad- vantaged group of American society like the uneducated and poor blacks could be put on their feet by just improving the environmental factors of their lives. Throughout his argumentation he reproaches the intellectuals of often taking the lead in spreading misconceptions of history and doing harm to society: "The role of soft-subject intellectuals - notably professors and schoolteachers - in fermenting internal strife and separatism, from the Basques in Spain to the French in Canada, adds another set of dangers of political instability from schooling without skills." (p. 24)

He believes in hard core skills like the technologies and crafts which are the basis of cultural success. Cultures are conceived of as dynamically engaged ! in a competitive process in which the weaker and less successful elements are weeded out. At that, there are many parts of group cultures which do not deserve any respect. That is why he thinks the notion of "mutual respect" cannot always hold as a premise when comparing cultures.

To his mind there is the widely observable development of a modern world culture which gradually overcomes those cultures which are less apt. This looks much like social Darwinism.

No wonder that the book may easily be misunderstood as ultra conservative. In fact, its title would be almost impossible to translate directly into German because of the nazi connotations of the word "race".

The book provides stimulating reading because nowhere else does one get such a pragmatic concept with a material and substantial understanding of culture. Probably everybody has secretly believed that according to his private observations certain nations and cultures are more or less successful and deserve more or less respect. But for the sake of not nurturing prejudices everybody refrains from speaking out.

On the other hand it must be feared that the book will be grist to the mill of those conservative forces in society who have always believed that only they themselves deserve to be rich and powerful because in their blindfolded eyes the lower strata of society lack cultural stamina and don't like to work hard.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A TRIUMPH OF LOGIC!!!!!!, January 10, 2006

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This review is from: Race And Culture: A World View (Paperback)

Mr. Sowell is an erudite scholar. He presents his no excuse thesis with logic, research, and a keen instinct for interpreting human behavior. Historical facts illuminate every point." The distorting censorship of political correctness thankfully was not found here." Every factor is brought in, climate, geography, cultural norms, etc. That all these things play a role in the successes and failures of both the individual and the group,is proven beyond doubt in this seminal book. This should be required reading in all of our schools.