Quotes from the book "Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area—crime, education, housing, race relations—the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them." "Some things must be done on faith, but the most dangerous kind of faith is that which masquerades as 'science.' As the pretense of science has replaced commonsense experience, we have abandoned many old-fashioned practices that worked in favor of high-sounding innovations that have led to disaster." "The assumption that spending more of the taxpayers' money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse. The black family—which survived slavery, discrimination, poverty, wars, and depressions—began to come apart as the federal government moved in with its well-financed programs to 'help.'" "Worst of all, guilt has so furtively stolen into many hearts and minds that people feel apologetic about being civilized, educated, and productive when others are barbaric, uneducated, and parasitic. When civilization apologizes to barbarism, something has gone very wrong at a very fundamental level."
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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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Home Run!,
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This review is from: Is Reality Optional? and Other Essays (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION) (Paperback)
Thomas Sowell hits it out of the park on this one. He's thought provoking, succinct, and ideologically on the button. This is a series of 2-3 page writings on a variety of topics that we all think about, but can never articulate in the fresh and clear way that Thomas Sowell does. He just makes sense, period.
39 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Timeless essays by the incomparable Doctor Sowell,
By A Customer
This review is from: Is Reality Optional? and Other Essays (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION) (Paperback)
A must for anyone who follows the brilliant Dr. Sowell, this book collects a series of his essays and thoughts on politics, race, and common sense. As a special treat he has a section of quotes at the end with gems like "To me, the fact that I have never killed an editor is proof enough that the death penalty deters" and "There are only two types of food- Southern fried chicken and everything else". A reader would be hard pressed to ask for more.
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonder why conservatives and liverals see things differently?,
This review is from: Is Reality Optional? and Other Essays (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION) (Paperback)
I'm a conservative and I have good friends and family memebers who are liberals. The conservatives and liberals I know are all intelligent and concerned people. I could never figure out why there were such differing views on so many topics.
This book nails it. It is from a conservative view, but will be enlightening to all. One of my favorites.
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