Buying Options

Print List Price:	$30.00
Kindle Price:	$17.99 Save $12.01 (40%)
Sold by:	Hachette Book Group Price set by seller.

Promotions apply when you purchase

Add Audible narration to your purchase for just $12.99

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Enter a promotion code or Gift Card

Share <Embed>

Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell by [Jason L Riley]

Audible Sample

Playing...

Paused

Follow the Author

Jason L Riley

Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell Kindle Edition

by Jason L Riley (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

1,105 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$17.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$18.69

$13.66

$11.96

Great on Kindle

Great Experience. Great Value.

Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

A biography of Thomas Sowell, one of America's most influential conservative thinkers. Thomas Sowell is one of the great social theorists of our age. In a career spanning more than a half century, he has written over thirty books, covering topics from economic history and social inequality to political theory, race, and culture. His bold and unsentimental assaults on liberal orthodoxy have endeared him to many readers but have also enraged fellow intellectuals, the civil-rights establishment, and much of the mainstream media. The result has been a lack of acknowledgment of his scholarship among critics who prioritize political correctness. In the first-ever biography of Sowell, Jason L. Riley gives this iconic thinker his due and responds to the detractors. Maverick showcases Sowell's most significant writings and traces the life events that shaped his ideas and resulted in a Black orphan from the Jim Crow South becoming one of our foremost public intellectuals.

Print length

249 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Basic Books
Publication date

May 25, 2021
File size

2328 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Thomas Sowell
2,857
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $18.99
Thomas Sowell
957
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $16.99
Thomas Sowell
223
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $8.99
Jason Riley
1,209
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.64
Thomas Sowell
459
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $15.99
Thomas Sowell
2,557
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99

Create your FREE Amazon Business account to save up to 10% with Business-only prices and free shipping.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Fascinating… Riley has achieved something rare in the field of intellectual biography — a recounting of a distinguished scholar’s life that draws on popular interest in Thomas Sowell the person and directs it to a lucid survey of Sowell’s voluminous intellectual output.”―National Review

“Sowell’s vast and diverse intellectual output, devoured over the decades by a loyal readership, screamed for a biography a long time ago. Jason Riley delivers, in a pleasing style that arrives as a must-read for any fan of Thomas Sowell, what the public so wanted but inexplicably did not receive until now.”―American Spectator

“Riley’s presentation of Sowell and his ideas is particularly important because it comes at a time when the Republican Party stresses its interest in reaching out to working-class and non-white voters. Sowell is one of the most influential black conservatives of the past 100 years.”―Daily Caller

“Riley, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, has done an admirable job distilling Sowell’s 90 years, 30-odd books, and countless columns into a single volume. Maverick will delight Sowell’s biggest fans and help introduce new generations to the man and his work.”―Washington Free Beacon

“An idea-centered life of the noted economist and political commentator. . . . This will be valuable to students of economics, Black conservatism, and public policy.”
―Kirkus

“Thomas Sowell is among the most brilliant thinkers in the world today—deep, original, creative, fearless, intimidatingly erudite. His gripping and improbable life story can only magnify one’s awe at this astonishing man’s accomplishments.”―Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of How the Mind Works and Enlightenment Now

“Maverick is a brilliant intellectual biography of one of the most important thinkers of our time. Jason Riley writes lucidly and engagingly, illuminating ideas of Sowell’s that are more timely today than ever, dispelling many myths along the way.”
―Amy Chua, Yale Law professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations

“Enlightened opinion has it that the views of conservative black thinkers are boilerplate canards dismissible with a few statistics. Enlightened opinion is also uninformed by — and quite dismissible in the light of — the life's work of Thomas Sowell. At last a biography that shows how and why.”

―John McWhorter, Professor of Linguistics at Columbia University, Contributing Editor at the Atlantic, and Host of Slate's Lexicon Valley

“With the publication of “Maverick,” Jason Riley has rendered an enormous service by providing a compelling, informed and elegant intellectual biography of the great Thomas Sowell. It was obviously a labor of love. As a professional economist and Windy City native, I especially appreciated Riley's nuanced, deeply researched account of Sowell's roots in the Chicago School of economic thought, as it was led by Milton Friedman and George Stigler in the 1950s and 1960s.”―Glenn Loury, Professor of Economics, Brown University

“There are two important ambitions at work in this book. The first gives historical context to Thomas Sowell’s extraordinary genius. The second shows how his work spawned a new, post-60s conservative consciousness in black America. It looks with openness and courage at the often-awkward encounter between conservatism and racial conflicts. But most of all, this is the inspiring story of one of the greatest American thinkers who has ever lived.”
―Shelby Steele, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of Shame --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author

Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of several previous books, including Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08HLR6HXQ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books (May 25, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 25, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2328 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 249 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1541619684
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #47,312 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #14 in Economic Policy & Development (Kindle Store)
- #19 in Libertarianism
- #26 in African American Studies

Customer Reviews:
1,105 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Jason L Riley

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Jason Riley is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, where he has written about politics, economics, education, immigration and social inequality for more than 20 years. He’s also a frequent public speaker and provides commentary for television and radio news outlets.

After joining the Journal in 1994, Mr. Riley was named a senior editorial page writer in 2000 and a member of the Editorial Board in 2005. He joined the Manhattan Institute, a public policy think tank focused on urban affairs, in 2015.

Mr. Riley is the author of four books: Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders (2008); Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed (2014); False Black Power? (2017); and the forthcoming Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell (May 2021).

Customer reviews

5 star		91%
4 star		6%
3 star		2%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

An intellectual biography, describing Sowell's life and his ideas

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2021

Verified Purchase

This book is, as the author Jason Riley puts it, an intellectual biography; meaning it is focused more on explaining Thomas Sowell's ideas and writings than it is on telling his entire life story. Riley aims to introduce the reader to some of the most important things that Sowell has written, while giving just enough personal history about Sowell's life to help explain what might have led him to propose such often controversial ideas.

There are a few paragraphs about Sowell's early childhood in the Introduction, and then the first chapter begins by describing Sowell's education at Howard, Harvard, Columbia, and finally the University of Chicago. Riley explains what factors led Sowell to go from identifying with Marxist ideologies in his 20s, to eventually rejecting Marxism and supporting a free market economic system. Riley details the influence of scholars like George Stigler, Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, and Friedrich Hayek, and how a young Sowell responded to some of their ideas.

Throughout the nine chapters of the book, Riley often addresses the criticisms of Sowell's work, and explains how critics have misrepresented or misunderstood Sowell's points. Riley includes many direct quotes from Sowell, while also giving more context for the quotes by describing the intellectual environment of the time, and Sowell's personal journey.

I learned quite a bit about Thomas Sowell by reading this book, and have a new found appreciation for his devotion to logical arguments and rational thought; often in face of conflict due to unpopular opinions. He strikes me as someone who is more interested in the truth than what people think about him, and to some extent I get the same impression of the author Jason Riley. I would recommend this book to anyone remotely interested Sowell, whether or not you think you agree with his opinions.

175 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jeff Kelleher

True grit, intellectual and otherwise

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2021

Verified Purchase

If you have watched videos of Thomas Sowell's speeches or interviews, you probably have an impression of a humble and ingratiating man. So he seems, but don't be misled. Gaze at the intimidating photo on the dust jacket. That is the real Thomas Sowell: steel-hard and surpassingly self-assured.

From an early age, he took no guff, from condescending teachers, Marine Corps sergeants, Ivy League deans, pedantic editors, or even heavyweight mentors like George Stigler and Milton Friedman, whom he revered, but never bowed before. At the same time, he appears to carry no measure of anger or malice.

Jason Riley's fine book is more an intellectual profile than a true biography. It does recount enough of Sowell's life to help us understand this singular man. Born into poverty in Jim Crow North Carolina, where he lived until age eight. Then Harlem, where he attended an outstanding black high school but dropped out, drifted from menial job to job, had a stint in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, and finally got his GED, qualifying him to enter all-black Howard University.

His innate brilliance (NOT affirmative action) got him transferred to Harvard (BA Magna Cum Laude) . Then a Master's at Columbia, Ph.D. at Chicago. A Marxist until his thirties--even while taking Friedman's legendary Price Theory course. Asked why he changed, he answered with one word: "facts." At every stage, he was his own free-standing and determined self.

Almost every mainstream reference to Sowell puts "controversial" next to his name, signaling to certain quarters that his works should be deemed not quite respectable. The truth is the opposite. Discourse founded on evidence and rigor is the essence of respectability.

Why can't we have more like him?

129 people found this helpful

Helpful

Todd

An American Hero

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2021

Verified Purchase

Not really a biography per se of his life but more capturing the main themes of his prolific thinking and writing. What I love about Thomas Sowell is his hard work, his analytical ability and his unconcern for being popular. In today's world of talking heads who claim things are right just because they are, Sowell has the audacity to use data to support his arguments and talks about the difference between correlation and causality. I love that he tries to get to the truth as opposed to just supporting a narrative. His writing has foreshadowed many of the things we are seeing today. I hope more people will read. I also appreciate how he focuses on identity politics and the concerns it generates. I think identity with a group is important but so is individual accountability and responsibility. Those should never be overlooked and are a big focus for Sowell.

70 people found this helpful

Helpful

Avid Reader

Bravo, Mr. Riley!

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2021

Verified Purchase

I pre-ordered this book right after I learned that Jason Riley had written it, and I am thankful that I did. This well written book was extremely well researched which Dr. Sowell would, no doubt, appreciate.

This book was more a biography of how Sowell evolved in his thinking and beliefs and others' reaction to his conclusions. It was less of a personal biography. That is praise, not criticism.

In case Mr. Riley reads these reviews . . . God bless you, sir, for writing this book.

55 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Dr. Peter Pan

The focus is on his work and the ways in which he and it are frequently misinterpreted.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 10, 2021

Verified Purchase

I read this excellent biography upon completing two of Sowell's earlier works: Black Rednecks and White Liberals, and Wealth, Poverty and Politics. I was led to these by an interview I saw with Sowell on Uncommon Knowledge (You Tube). I was particularly struck by his response to a question about shifting his ideological position - because of a growing acquaintance with the facts. This, I thought, is a man I must read. He did not disappoint. These are substantial works that cannot be summarised in a few sentences, so I'll just offer one example from Sowell's work and one from Riley's biography. By way of preface, I am an Englishman who lives in England and am, therefore, somewhat detached from the controversial elements in Sowell's work that pertain to the USA. Nevertheless, I do get a sense of sadness coming through his writing.

One of the many facts to which he draws readers' attention is that many American black people seem to have adopted as their own, spurred on by black 'leaders', a cultural attitude derived from the redneck or cracker culture of certain white communities who settled in the antebellum south. Those communities came from particular areas in Britain. It was a hothead culture that eschewed educational and business achievement and it contributed significantly to the lack of economic advancement experienced by those communities. By contrast, Sowell reports on the economic successes of other groups who suffered considerable levels of discrimination in various parts of the world, e.g. diaspora Chinese in SE Asia, Lebanese in Africa, Japanese in Peru and the USA, Jews in the USA, and others. He identifies common denominators in those successes - mainly connected with a culture of hard work, enterprise and educational achievement. There is the formula that black Americans could adopt, and I sense Sowell's sadness in the fact that, by and large, they have not done so.

Amongst the many insightful gems in Riley's biography I will mention just his simple observation that despite many assertions in the media that Sowell was a Republican conservative '... the reality is that Sowell was a registered Democrat until 1972 and has never been a registered Republican.' So I will conclude with another quotation from Riley that, for me, makes Sowell an important contributor to modern social debates: 'Sowell has shown time and again over the decades that he is his own man, even when it meant ruffling the feathers of ideologial allies.' If you seek exposure to courageous independent thinking then read Riley and Sowell.

Michael J. Burke

Biography of a great man

Reviewed in Australia on June 18, 2021

Verified Purchase

Some years ago, I had an online conversation with an apparently well-educated American woman who had questioned my admiration of Thomas Sowell's opinion on some aspect of American society. She wondered why I, an Australian, would refer to him as a credible authority. Did I not understand that he was not well known in the United States? Nobody there had heard of him, she claimed.
I hope this excellent book will redress that obvious ignorance.