This book is perhaps even more relevant a decade later than when it was written. Little has changed and a lot has gotten worse. Sowell gives a retrospective and (then) current update on the state of race ideas in (US) academia, and a lot of the pushback against him are not based so much in what he says as who he's aligned with, be it right wing politics in the US or Chicago school economics. The actual content of the book has a sprinkling of such ideas, in criticising government programs being counterproductive or focusing on the advancement of ethnic groups being tied to their economic liberty - but far more than that widening the US-centric race debate from a (literally) black and white perspective, to include what is probably familiar to anyone outside the US; the far more complex reality of the issue. Slavery is a bigger topic than the transatlantic slave trade, outcast groups have (also in the US) included many that are now integrated into the "white" group or just ignored (as often is the case with asian and SEA in the US that don't fit neatly into any narrative).

While society remains stunlocked and unable to move past the ideas of racial hierarchies and victimhood narratives that seem to have been more counterproductive than accomplishing anything, there is a dearth of voices that offer a different perspective. I eagerly await new ideas from Sowells critics that aren't just doubling down on more and wordier constructs defending the oppression olympics.

The biggest flaw of this book is not offering a concrete alternative, though arguably that is outside the scope it set out to do. You get a general sense of Sowell's biases for what would work and not work in his comparisons of groups that have done better and worse, and his focus on US black culture as a primary problem, but no real action plan for what to do about it. (Changing a culture is a lot more nebulous a problem than throwing more millions into some government program). Sowell has also pointed out a handful of the people behind the current narratives on race but doesn't delve deep into the alternatives. ( )

Well researched, fact-based thinking, and clear writing. I highly recommend! ( )

This is, perhaps, one of his better books. Or possibly I'm just biased because, since it has recent publishing date, it's style is also updated(complete with numbered footnotes! And we all know how I love those!). Some of the information is repeated but his specific target audience is different so that twists the angle a bit. *

If you're fond of Southern US history you either won't be or won't like this book after reading. Racism, as Sowell attests, is a alive and real. But not just in the ways we are accustomed to thinking of it.



*I was taught in grad school that you should always be part of a conversation. He does that well. ( )

A good, intellectually taxing read. ( )

Ahogy a korábbi Sowell kritikámban is írtam Thomas Sowell amerikai közgazdász, társadalomtudós, akit leginkább szerintem azért ismerhetünk, mert igen ritka, hogy valaki kritizálja pl. a kisebbségek pozitív diszkriminációját, miközben szegény sorban felnőtt afro-amerikai.

A bevezető könyv (The Thomas Sowell Reader) után úgy gondoltam, elolvasom egy könyvét ami egy konkrét témával foglalkozik, és mivel leginkább a rasszizmusról írt esszéi váltották ki a legtöbb kritikát, ezt választottam. Ez a könyv egyetlen témára összpontosít, így persze alaposabb elemzést kapunk, érdekes és elgondolkodtató amit ír, viszont elég hamar az volt az érzésem, hogy a könyv csak ismétli önmagát. Nem igazán éreztem, hogy ez a könyv sokat ad hozzá a korábbi könyvhöz. ( )