Briefly Noted

 Just the Facts, Jack!

Thomas Sowell.  Intellectuals and Society, Basic Books, 2009. 398 pgs.  Index. Hardcover 29.95.

If you look at any Thomas Sowell book you will conclude that he is a good writer. He is clear and organized and surprises the already well-informed reader on almost every page. This new book is one of the most satisfying of his works that we have read. His facts are solid and his logic is irrefutable. He offers separate chapters on economics, social vision, media and academia, law, war and society. His approach is pure common sense without ever stepping back to formulate a theoretical expression of the meaning of events—a lack that may disappoint some Voegelinians. The approach is complimentary to Voegelinian analysis but sometimes frustrating. His grasp of law and economics is sure. Here is a typical observation:

. . . . under new economic policies beginning in the 1990s, tens of millions of people in India have risen above that country's official poverty level. In China, under similar policies begun earlier, a million people a month have risen out of poverty. Surely anyone concerned with the fate of the less fortunate would want to know how this desirable development came about for such vast numbers of very poor people — and therefore how similar improvements might be produced elsewhere in the world. But these and other dramatic increases in living standards, based ultimately on the production of more wealth, arouse little or no interest among most intellectuals. (p 165)

 

One could almost say he sees what is going on around us better than anyone. Both rewarding and enjoyable reading.