A conversation on Thomas Sowell

Center for Equal OpportunityCulture & Society

This post originally appeared on the Manhattan Institute Website

CEO Chairman Linda Chavez interviews Wall Street Journal columnist and CEO board member Jason Riley on his new biography of Thomas Sowell. 

With a career spanning more than a half-century and contributions to fields ranging from economic history and social inequality to political theory, race, and culture, Thomas Sowell is one of the greatest social theorists of our age. His bold and unsentimental assaults on liberal orthodoxy have endeared him to many readers but 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 Thomas Sowell, MI senior fellow and Wall Street Journal columnist, Jason L. Riley traces Sowell’s journey from black orphan in the Jim Crow South to one of our foremost public intellectuals, while also highlighting some of his most important work. Based on numerous interviews, this nuanced and deeply researched account shows how Sowell’s ideas are more relevant today than ever.