Volume XX, Issue VII: Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell, American Philosopher
There are few things more dishonorable than misinforming the young.”
– Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell was born on June 30, 1930 in Gastonia, North Carolina. When he was nine years old his family moved with him to Harlem in New York City. He was able to attend the academically rigorous Stuyvesant High School, becoming the first in his family to go beyond sixth grade and finish high school. At seventeen he was financially unable to go to college and worked a number of different jobs before being drafted in 1951. His ability as a photographer led to his being assigned to the Marine Corps as one. He served for two years and when he was discharged he found a civil service job in Washington, DC. That gave him the opportunity to take classes at Howard University. Eventually he was able to attend Harvard University.
He never lost his keen eye and love for photography. His work in that field is stunning. As a civil servant, he lost his belief in Marxist ideology, seeing that government was a poor substitute for other forces in society. Sowell devoted much of his life to the study of why certain people and certain cultures are successful – seeing that certain individuals and groups who have developed in a place where there is a healthy exchange of ideas tend to hone skills that they carry with them. One of his later interests was a study of late-speaking children. He noted that this condition was not the indicator of a lack of intelligence, but quite the opposite. Now over 90 years old, Thomas Sowell has published an impressive number of books in the past decade. He is a great example of productivity in all seasons of life!
Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World explores the life and work of one of our era’s greatest authors on race, history and economics. The one-hour documentary, hosted by The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Riley, begins streaming at www.sowellfilm.com today. It airs on public television in February.
You’re about to meet one of the greatest minds of the past half-century,” said Riley. “His story is both fascinating and illuminating.”
Riley traces Sowell’s life journey from Harlem to Hoover Institute as he became one of America’s most prolific authors. Sowell’s intellectual honesty and quest for facts took him into the Marine’s Combat Camera Corps during the Korean War, then onto Harvard, Columbia University and the University of Chicago for his Ph.D. in economics. He has earned positions at top universities as a professor of economics, was a popular syndicated columnist for 30 years, and has published 37 books on a variety of subjects. The documentary features insights from Sowell, interviews with colleagues, associates and with those he has inspired. Riley reveals why the intensely private Thomas Sowell is considered by many to be “the smartest person in the room.”
Riley’s new biography on Sowell, Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell, will be published May 25.
Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World is a production of Free To Choose® Media. Tom Jennings is the producer. Thomas Skinner and Rob Chatfield are executive producers. Major funding is provided by L.E. Phillips Family Foundation, Robert and Marion Oster, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc., DKT Liberty Project, The Charles and Ann Johnson Foundation, Chris and Melodie Rufer.
Photographs by Thomas Sowell [click to view]
Life's Railway to Heaven
M. E. Abbey, Charles Davis Tillman
Claudius Crozet's Blue Ridge Tunnel. Photo by Bob Kirchman
Life is like a mountain railroad,
With an engineer that’s brave;
We must make the run successful,
From the cradle to the grave;
Watch the curves, the fills, the tunnels;
Never falter, never quail;
Keep your hand upon the throttle,
And your eye upon the rail.
Refrain:
Thomas Sowell was born on June 30, 1930 in Gastonia, North Carolina. When he was nine years old his family moved with him to Harlem in New York City. He was able to attend the academically rigorous Stuyvesant High School, becoming the first in his family to go beyond sixth grade and finish high school. At seventeen he was financially unable to go to college and worked a number of different jobs before being drafted in 1951. His ability as a photographer led to his being assigned to the Marine Corps as one. He served for two years and when he was discharged he found a civil service job in Washington, DC. That gave him the opportunity to take classes at Howard University. Eventually he was able to attend Harvard University.
He never lost his keen eye and love for photography. His work in that field is stunning. As a civil servant, he lost his belief in Marxist ideology, seeing that government was a poor substitute for other forces in society. Sowell devoted much of his life to the study of why certain people and certain cultures are successful – seeing that certain individuals and groups who have developed in a place where there is a healthy exchange of ideas tend to hone skills that they carry with them. One of his later interests was a study of late-speaking children. He noted that this condition was not the indicator of a lack of intelligence, but quite the opposite. Now over 90 years old, Thomas Sowell has published an impressive number of books in the past decade. He is a great example of productivity in all seasons of life!
Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World explores the life and work of one of our era’s greatest authors on race, history and economics. The one-hour documentary, hosted by The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Riley, begins streaming at www.sowellfilm.com today. It airs on public television in February.
You’re about to meet one of the greatest minds of the past half-century,” said Riley. “His story is both fascinating and illuminating.”
Riley traces Sowell’s life journey from Harlem to Hoover Institute as he became one of America’s most prolific authors. Sowell’s intellectual honesty and quest for facts took him into the Marine’s Combat Camera Corps during the Korean War, then onto Harvard, Columbia University and the University of Chicago for his Ph.D. in economics. He has earned positions at top universities as a professor of economics, was a popular syndicated columnist for 30 years, and has published 37 books on a variety of subjects. The documentary features insights from Sowell, interviews with colleagues, associates and with those he has inspired. Riley reveals why the intensely private Thomas Sowell is considered by many to be “the smartest person in the room.”
Riley’s new biography on Sowell, Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell, will be published May 25.
Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World is a production of Free To Choose® Media. Tom Jennings is the producer. Thomas Skinner and Rob Chatfield are executive producers. Major funding is provided by L.E. Phillips Family Foundation, Robert and Marion Oster, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc., DKT Liberty Project, The Charles and Ann Johnson Foundation, Chris and Melodie Rufer.
Photographs by Thomas Sowell [click to view]
Life's Railway to Heaven
M. E. Abbey, Charles Davis Tillman
Claudius Crozet's Blue Ridge Tunnel. Photo by Bob Kirchman
Life is like a mountain railroad,
With an engineer that’s brave;
We must make the run successful,
From the cradle to the grave;
Watch the curves, the fills, the tunnels;
Never falter, never quail;
Keep your hand upon the throttle,
And your eye upon the rail.
Refrain:
Blessed Savior, Thou wilt guide us,
Till we reach the blissful shore,
Where the angels wait to join us
In Thy praise forevermore.
You will roll up grades of trial;
You will cross the bridge of strife;
See that Christ is your conductor
On this lightning train of life;
Always mindful of obstruction,
Do your duty, never fail;
Keep your hand upon the throttle,
And your eye upon the rail. [Refrain]
You will often find obstructions,
Look for storms and wind and rain;
On a fill, or curve, or trestle
They will almost ditch your train;
Put your trust alone in Jesus,
Never falter, never fail;
Keep your hand upon the throttle,
And your eye upon the rail. [Refrain]
As you roll across the trestle,
Spanning Jordan’s swelling tide,
You behold the Union Depot
Into which your train will glide;
There you’ll meet the Sup’rintendent,
God the Father, God the Son,
With the hearty, joyous plaudit,
“Weary pilgrim, welcome home.” [Refrain]
Visiting the Blue Ridge Tunnel.
The World of ‘Floob!’
When I was a child, I went off to elementary school. We were given readers to develop our skills in language and word recognition. We were to progress through them, gradually developing vocabulary and reading skills. One very distinctive thing about these readers was the brown paper sleeve. It tightly wrapped all the pages beyond the scope of our immediate lesson so we couldn’t peek ahead. It was put there by our teachers.
Did it work? I can tell you that during the humdrum adventures of Dick and Jane (or, in our case, David and Ann) I learned how to slip off the brown paper sleeve (and return it). There was a whole new world in there. Further along in the book, we’d get to some American athletic heroes like Glenn Cunningham, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens and Jim Thorpe. The brown paper sleeve only served to heighten the thrill of discovery! Dr. Seuss had already been used by my parents to introduce me to the world of reading. Sneaking ahead was a doorway to a whole new world.
By middle school, I was a ‘problem child’ with too much energy. A wise librarian helped when she told me I was quite within my rights to take books out of the ‘older grades’ section. She picked out an example. It was a nice little story about a boy and his cat exploring Mars. I was enthralled again. Dad got me the Black Stallion books. I discovered Jules Verne. I learned that there is always discovery possible just past the brown sleeve.
And so today, when the ‘new media’ puts a brown sleeve on information, the effect is much the same. There are always those of us who will look beyond. Dr. Seuss wrote a book which had to have been my favorite of all of them – On Beyond Zebra – where a precocious child goes beyond “Z” to invent his own alphabet. The imaginative letters are used to begin the names of all manner of fantastic creatures such as “Floob is for Floob-boober-bab-boober-bubs, who float in the water like blubbery tubs; They’re no good to eat, you can’t cook ‘em like steaks, but they’re handy for crossing small oceans and lakes!
The Drugs Behind the Brown Paper Sleeve [click to read]
