TopVet: Thomas Sowell

Prominent economist Thomas Sowell will celebrate his 95th birthday in June but shows no signs of slowing down. The Marine Corps veteran is widely published, quoted, and sought after for guidance on current economic issues. The author of more than 45 books, he is a known voice in the Black conservative movement.

"Dr. Sowell is one of America’s leading intellectuals, shaping how the nation thinks about global prosperity in economics, politics, and history," reads a recent letter from the political advocacy group Advancing American Freedom, which asks President Trump to grant him the Medal of Freedom.

The North Carolina native was raised by his great aunt in Harlem. He was drafted in 1951 in a time of deep segregation. He served in the Korean War and was honorably discharged in 1952. Later he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University in 1958. He earned a master's degree in economics from Columbia University the next year and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968. He’s held professorships at Cornell University, Rutgers University, Amherst College, Brandeis University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1977, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy. 

Amongst the issues he has focused on is education for minorities.

“Of all ignorance, the ignorance of the educated is the most dangerous. Not only are educated people likely to have more influence, they are the last people to suspect that they don’t know what they are talking about when they go outside their narrow fields,” he said.

Sowell was an important figure to the conservative movement during the 1980s Reagan era, influencing fellow economist Walter E. Williams and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He was offered a position as Federal Trade Commissioner in the Ford administration and was considered for posts including U.S. Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration, but declined both times. 

His books on economics include Housing Boom and Bust(2009), Intellectuals and Society (2009), Applied Economics (2009), Economic Facts and Fallacies (2008), Basic Economics (2007), and Affirmative Action Around the World (2004). Other books on economics he has written include Classical Economics Reconsidered (1974), Say’s Law (1972), and Economics: Analysis and Issues (1971). On social policy, he has written Knowledge and Decisions (1980), Preferential Policies (1989), Inside American Education (1993), The Vision of the Anointed (1995), Barbarians Inside the Gates (1999), and The Quest for Cosmic Justice (1999). On the history of ideas he has written Marxism (1985) and Conflict of Vision (1987). Sowell also wrote Late-Talking Children (1997).

Sowell was a recipient of the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush in 2002. He explored contemporary subjects as a syndicated columnist in more than 150 newspapers. Themes of his writing range from social policy on race, ethnic groups, education, and decision-making, to classical and Marxian economics, to the problems of children perceived as having disabilities. He had an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last August.

“I write a weekly column,” he says, “except when I’m really revved up. Then I write two or three.” The father of two gave up his weekly column for Creators Syndicate at the age of 86 to spend more time with his hobby of photography.