Jason L Riley's Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell

James J. Bjaloncik: Jason Riley's biography of Dr. Thomas Sowell is one of the very best bios I've ever read. Highly readable, Riley goes more into Sowell's thinking and philosophy which has made him probably the best to put pen to paper (or keyboard to computer) while evaluating the world around us. I have been a HUGE fan of Dr. Sowell from the time I first saw him on Bill Buckley's "Firing Line" TV show and have most of his books and writings. This bio has helped me better understand Sowell and his thinking. Superb!! And Jason Riley does a fantastic job of bringing all of this across.

United States on Oct 12, 2023

M.ADJA: As a Frenchman, living in France, Tom sowell changed my life. I've never seen anyone combine clarity and common sense to such a degree. He literally reshaped my all way of the thinking. He's the person that I admire the most and he's my role model.
Thanks to Maverick, I've learned a lot on the different works of Dr.Sowell. Thank you a lot for your work Mr.Riley.

France on May 29, 2022

Alistair: This is a good and very timely introduction to the thought of Thomas Sowell. I credit him with opening my eyes to the conservative viewpoint, being that today's popular culture and media is awash with so called "progressive" ideas that are largely hollow rehashing of ideas that have come and gone in the past. Fundamentally progressives mis-diagnose the human condition and therefore they cannot possibly prescribe a cure for it, all progressives can do at best is attach band-aid to wounds that need surgery. I accessed Sowell's work at first through his many interviews done with The Hoover Institution. Now I am slowly delving deeper into his work starting with "Conflict of Visions". May the tribe of Sowell scholars increase.

India on Mar 07, 2022

Sydney Williams: Sydney M. Williams

“Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell,” Jason L. Riley
October 10, 2021

“The kind of idealized unity, projected by political leaders and
intellectuals, has seldom existed among any racial and minority
anywhere. Nor has the economic progress of racial or ethnic groups
been much correlated with their closeness to, or remoteness from, such unity.”
Thomas Sowell (1930-)
As quoted by Jason Riley in Maverick

Thomas Sowell was born into rural poverty in North Carolina in 1930. His father died before he was born and his mother a few years later, giving birth to a younger brother. With an aunt, he moved to Harlem. Two years after being admitted to New York’s Stuyvesant High School he dropped out. At eighteen he joined the Marines. After his service he acquired his GED and entered Howard University. Following freshman year, he transferred to Harvard. He earned a masters at Columbia and a PhD in economics at the University of Chicago. After giving up teaching at age fifty, he has spent the last forty-one years at the Hoover Institute. He has written at least thirty books on subjects ranging from economics, race, education,...

United States on Oct 10, 2021

Dr. Peter Pan: I read this excellent biography upon completing two of Sowell's earlier works: Black Rednecks and White Liberals, and Wealth, Poverty and Politics. I was led to these by an interview I saw with Sowell on Uncommon Knowledge (You Tube). I was particularly struck by his response to a question about shifting his ideological position - because of a growing acquaintance with the facts. This, I thought, is a man I must read. He did not disappoint. These are substantial works that cannot be summarised in a few sentences, so I'll just offer one example from Sowell's work and one from Riley's biography. By way of preface, I am an Englishman who lives in England and am, therefore, somewhat detached from the controversial elements in Sowell's work that pertain to the USA. Nevertheless, I do get a sense of sadness coming through his writing.

One of the many facts to which he draws readers' attention is that many American black people seem to have adopted as their own, spurred on by black 'leaders', a cultural attitude derived from the redneck or cracker culture of certain white communities who settled in the antebellum south. Those communities came from particular areas in Britain. It...

United Kingdom on Sep 10, 2021

James K: Great read for people who need deprogramming as an introduction to Sowell’s genius.

Canada on Jun 26, 2021

Michael J. Burke: Some years ago, I had an online conversation with an apparently well-educated American woman who had questioned my admiration of Thomas Sowell's opinion on some aspect of American society. She wondered why I, an Australian, would refer to him as a credible authority. Did I not understand that he was not well known in the United States? Nobody there had heard of him, she claimed.
I hope this excellent book will redress that obvious ignorance.

Australia on Jun 19, 2021

Bill Powers: This is the third Jason Riley book that I have read. The first “Please Stop Helping Us”, followed by “False Black Power?” and now “Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell”. I have enjoyed all three, but with Maverick, Riley has clearly staked his claim as a major serious thinker among black conservatives. I also follow Riley’s Opinion pieces in the Wall Street Journal and highly recommend them.

Maverick focus more on Sowell’s evolution as an economist and how he has applied economic analysis to issues related to race, not only in the United States, but globally.
• “Intellectuals have romanticized cultures that have left people mired in poverty, ignorance, violence, disease and chaos, while trashing cultures that have led the world in prosperity, education, medical advances and law and order,” he wrote in Intellectuals and Society.”
• “They have encouraged the poor to believe their poverty is caused by the rich—a message which may be a passing annoyance to the rich but a lasting handicap to the poor, who may see less need to make fundamental changes to their own lives that could lift themselves up, instead of focusing their efforts on...

United States on Jun 17, 2021