[34] in libertarians
Laissez Faire Book News: Sowell's RACE AND CULTURE
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Whitten)
Fri Jul 1 19:08:13 1994
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 18:56:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: Chris Whitten <whitten@panix.com>
Apparently-To: <libertarians@mit.edu>
I'm especially excited about distributing this review. Thomas Sowell
reports that the book has been 12 years in the making. Roy Childs,
Laissez Faire's late editor, saw an early version and said this was
Sowell's magnum opus.
Sowell agreed to autograph 200 copies for us, so you have a special
opportunity. The autographed copies are first-come, first-served. Since
you're are seeing the review before the catalog mails, if you order it now
you may be able to get one.
Liberty, a key reason why some cultures
are so much more successful than others
RACE AND CULTURE
A World View
by Thomas Sowell
(reviewed by Jim Powell)
Why are people in some cultures so much more healthy, prosperous and
dynamic than people in other cultures? That's one of the many intriguing
questions answered by distinguished scholar Thomas Sowell in his latest
book. It goes well beyond his previous works on race--reflects a
decade of research, two trips through the Pacific Basin and two trips
around the world.
Sowell demolishes widely-held views that cultures--especially minority
cultures--benefit from government intervention. Throughout history, he
shows, governments typically have used their power to plunder minority
cultures. He cites case after case which makes clear why minorities are
best-advised to have as little as possible to do with government.
Sowell explains why government intervention generally provokes violent
conflict among competing cultures. The more educated people are, the
more bitter the conflict. "Education of the sort useful only for being a
clerk, bureaucrat, or school teacher," says Sowell, "jobs whose numbers
are relatively fixed in the short run and politically determined in the
long run--tend to increase intergroup strife."
Sowell shows why people who hope to improve themselves through
government intervention might gain famous leaders but they end up in
dead-end jobs like bureaucrats. "Less successful ethnic groups," he
observes, "are often richly endowed with leaders. Any well-informed
American can readily name half a dozen black leaders, current or from
U.S. history, but would probably have difficulty naming a similar number
of Jewish or Japanese American ethnic leaders. Similarly, it is doubtful
if they could name as many prominent Italian American ethnic leaders as
prominent American Indian chiefs."
In an effort to protect culture from supposedly corrupting foreign
influences, government cuts it off from the outside world, but Sowell
explains why this condemns culture to backwardness. He writes, "Where
Jews have been enabled--or forced--to maintain small separate
communites in cultural backwaters such as the villages of Eastern Europe
or of Yemen, for example, there they have lagged far behind the
achievements of other Jews exposed to the wider world of either Islamic
or European civilization..."
Sowell explains why government-sanctioned multiculturalism is doomed.
Reflecting Adam Smith's famous insight about progress being limited by
the size of a market, Sowell explains that "the size of the cultural
universe is fundamental to cultural progress, so this conclusion has grim
implications for organized attempts to Balkanize societies in the name of
cultural 'identity' or of 'multiculturalism,' as in late twentieth
century America, Britain, Canada, or Australia, for example."
Sowell makes a passionate case that cultures thrive to the degree
people can freely cultivate contact with the outside world. He tells
how almost every great city arose on a river or by a harbor where it was
easy for different people to gather. Sowell tells how every great culture has
borrowed substantially from others--wheat from Egypt, paper from China,
"Arabic" numerals from India, and so on.
Sowell emphasizes the crucial stimulus of immigrants. Historically, he
notes, immigrants seldom brought much wealth to a new land. He tells how
they frequently started in dirty, low-paying jobs which got them
started. Since large numbers of immigrants lacked political connections,
they went into commerce rather than government. Sowell explains how
commerce gives people incentives to be thrifty, reliable and peaceful--
qualities essential for success. He tells how Lebanese in West Africa,
Chinese in Southeast Asia, Parsees in India and Koreans in the United
States, among many others, achieved fabulous success by providing useful
services.
Sowell brings his remarkable global perspective to the issue of
slavery. He dispels the dogma that slavery was a distinctive blot on
Western civilization, showing how slavery occurred for millennia on every
continent. He tells how the West--notably Britain--became the first to
fight the slave trade (1807), inspiring American abolitionists. Sowell
notes how slavery persisted in Africa, Asia and the Middle East long
after it disappeared in the West. Sowell notes that slavery everywhere--
including the American South--has been associated with backwardness,
not prosperity.
In this magnificent new book, Sowell offers an abundance of provocative
insights as he shows how, around the world, people do best when they can
pursue their cultural values freely, without government intervention.
A sampler from RACE AND CULTURE:
* "Few mixtures are more volatile than race and politics. The normal
frictions and resentments among individuals and groups seldom approach
the magnitude of frenzy and violence produced by the politicization of race."
* "There is no such group as 'Hispanics' anywhere in the world except
in the United States, because only in the U.S. do government programs
recognize such a category."
* "A common charge against immigrants... is that they take jobs from
native-born workers. But there is no fixed number of jobs from which
those going to immigrants can be substracted."
* "Exaggerated group 'identity' makes copying from others akin to
treason."
* "Goals which depend upon the creativity, skills, thrift, work
habits, organizational abilities, and technological knowledge in the population
at large are much less within the power of incumbent officials to achieve..."
* "Political 'solutions' are often long on immediate symbolism and
short on lasting results."
Book No. TS6046 (hardcover) 261p + index Publisher's Price $25.00
Laissez Faire Price ONLY $19.95
________________________________________________________________________
This book will be in stock at Laissez Faire in just a few weeks. You
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Thank you,
Chris
Chris Whitten
Managing Editor
Laissez Faire Books
1-800-326-0996
