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Title: Migrations and Cultures: A World View by Thomas Sowell ISBN: 0-465-04589-8 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: March, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Readable, thorough, and candid
Comment: How does moving from one country to another, or from one continent to another, affect people? How does it affect the lifestyle of those who move? Conversely, how does this change the culture of the recipient country? In his book MIGRATIONS AND CULTURES, Thomas Sowell explores the various answers to these questions by examining the historical changes wrought by migrations amongst six different groups of people: Germans, Japanese, Italians, Chinese, Jews, and Indians (from India, not North America).
By looking at the histories of Germans who migrated to various places in Russia - Baltic, Volga, Black Sea - as well as the differing histories of Germans who migrated to various places in the United States, Brazil, Paraguay, and Australia, he avoids drawing false conclusions that are often made when only one or two particular cases of migration are studied. Sowell applies this broader historical frame of reference to each of these six groups to better understand cultural phenomena. For example, Orlando Patterson at Harvard once wrote that the Chinese were prominent in Jamaica for reasons peculiar to Jamaican history. But by looking at the Chinese in other cultures, one sees they are dominant "middleman minority" in other places as well, ranging from Thailand or the Philippines to Panama City or Lima, Peru. So that one is forced to conclude that it wasn't something unique to Jamaican history that made Chinese prominent as middlemen, but rather due to something in the culture the people brought with them to China, whether in the form of particular skills or work habits or inclinations and attitudes to life.
After years of exhaustive research, consultation with other scholars, and wide-ranging travels in preparing his trilogy (RACE AND CULTURE, MIGRATIONS AND CULTURES, CONQUESTS AND CULTURES), Sowell concluded, "If there is one pattern that emerges from all these histories it is that each group has its own cultural pattern - and that these patterns do not disappear upon crossing a border or an ocean." Some things, such as external cultural manifestations of language or dress, may change far more readily than internal cultural values such as social mores, marital choice, religious practice, propensity to sacrifice and to save earnings, or attitudes towards work, all things which go into that little phrase, "cultural capital".
Sowell's book is exhaustively researched but not pedantic. His numerous specific examples for the general statements he puts forth not only make his work readable but reliable as well: in making a point, he backs it up with specific historical examples. His book is not "light reading" in the way a intriguing novel might be, but it is "sound" reading, enlightening and trustworthy. I didn't get the feeling Sowell tried to pull the wool over his readers' eyes: he instead attempted to lay out the facts in a coherent, honest fashion. His conclusions are insightful (and sometimes controversial). Provided one keeps a pen or pencil in hand to stay attentive to this text, I believe most will find this an enjoyable reading experience.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great history of cultures
Comment: Migratiosn and Cultures does a really great job of describing how different ethnic groups around the world have migrates from their native lands to go new lands in search of work. It focuses on both permant migration as well as temproary migration. Sowell shows how their culture has affected what type of job these groups have gone into and how they have faired in comparision to their native populations. It shows how native populations differ in how they treat the migrants like the differenced in the treatment of the Jews. It also shows how native populations can start a backlash against the new ethnic groups like Jews in various countries, Chinese in Southeast Asia, Indians in east Africa and Germans in Russia and eastern Europe.
Overall, the book tries makes connections between how cultures affects its inhabitants even as the move to new lands and how it affects the descendants of those people.
Rating: 4
Summary: More ammunition for the culture wars...
Comment: ...and usable by both sides. Nevermind that the subtitle of MIGRATIONS AND CULTURES says that the perspective taken by this book is A World View - thus the US is not the specific subject - there is enough here of relevance to our current debates on multiculturalism and immigration that both the fuzzy-visioned left and the myopic, patriotic, right will have field days.
Substantively, MIGRATIONS AND CULTURES looks at six cultures (Chinese, Germans, Indians, Italians, Japanese and Jews) and their experiences as migrants in new countries. A summary of some of his main findings is as follows:
1. A fairly common experience is arriving destitute, applying oneself with reliance on family, endeavor, and thrift; emphasizing education for the native-born 2nd generation, and contributing to increasing wealth of their new country. Concommitant with migrant success there is usually envy and/or prejudice from some native populations.
2. A clear distinction can be made between culture and race. The experiences of Chinese migrants in many countries is a frequent example used by Mr Sowell. As an illustration of the reality that cultural similarities can transcend race we are referred to the fully assimilated Chinese of the West Indies.
3. Cultural capital, which he defines as the habits and beliefs that migrants bring to a new country - is much more important in determining the migrants fate, than is the new homeland's economy, culture, or political system.
It is this last point that both sides will debate. It immediately sours the palate of the far right who offer the idea that the goodness of the US as the ultimate land of opportunity, is there to be tasted, if only the migrants would jump into the melting pot. At the same time Mr Sowell scrambles the eggs of the academic left by saying not all cultures are equal. He says plainly that variations in cultural capital account for differences in economic and social outcomes.
This is a well reasoned book, satisfyingly light on the polemics. For those who don't like statistics it's a bit heavy with the numbers. He's an economist so maybe you'll understand and forgive this emphasis. Anyhow, you should definitely read him.
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Title: Race and Culture: A World View by Thomas Sowell ISBN: 0465067972 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: August, 1995 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Conquests and Cultures: An International History by Thomas Sowell ISBN: 0465014003 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles by Thomas Sowell ISBN: 0465081428 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 19 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation As a Basis for Social Policy by Thomas Sowell ISBN: 046508995X Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: August, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One by Thomas Sowell ISBN: 0465081436 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 11 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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