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Title: Race and Culture: A World View by Thomas Sowell ISBN: 0-465-06797-2 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: August, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.13 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: "Race and Culture" runs against established views
Comment: Thomas Sowell, a black senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University has aroused much controversy with his 329 page-long book on race and culture. His thesis runs contrary to most current trends in social sciences. And it seems incompatible with most assumptions underlying government policies and established academic notions with regard to racial and ethnic minorities.
Sowell's thesis maintains that differences in productive skills and cultural values are the key to understanding the advancement or regression of ethnic groups. In his opinion, skills and values make up the cultural capital of an ethnic group or of a people, whereas politics, environmental factors and genetics do not play the important roles widely attributed to the success of a group or nation.
Since Sowell's central topic is the universe of values, the reader will easily accept the general layout of his book: a world view. In order to make his universal perspective convincing, Sowell pays his respect to a one page long list of scholars world wide from whose wisdom he has been able to draw.
What is the result of Sowell's approach to "Race and Culture"? We learn that certain peoples have been more or similarly successful than others because of their human capital, their particular pattern of cultural values which enabled them to perform better than others. The Jews are said to have prospered wherever they went in the world because they were experts in the textile business. Italian immigrants we! re often similarly successful in the field of wine production. The Germans are said to have always been successful farmers and craftsmen, and the Chinese succeed everywhere as retailers and restaurant owners.
In one chapter he goes into the question whether intelligence tests allow any conclusion as to the genetic supremacy of one race over the other. The answer is negative. Chinese and some other immigrant groups have been economically and socially successful in America regardless of how they score on intelligence tests. This proves, in his opinion, that inherited traditional values and skills as well as the culturally based capacity to adapt to new conditions are the essential factors, and not genetics. He says the assumption that always environmental conditions are the determining factors of a group's success or failure is wrong. Consequently, he does not think that a disad- vantaged group of American society like the uneducated and poor blacks could be put on their feet by just improving the environmental factors of their lives. Throughout his argumentation he reproaches the intellectuals of often taking the lead in spreading misconceptions of history and doing harm to society: "The role of soft-subject intellectuals - notably professors and schoolteachers - in fermenting internal strife and separatism, from the Basques in Spain to the French in Canada, adds another set of dangers of political instability from schooling without skills." (p. 24)
He believes in hard core skills like the technologies and crafts which are the basis of cultural success. Cultures are conceived of as dynamically engaged ! in a competitive process in which the weaker and less successful elements are weeded out. At that, there are many parts of group cultures which do not deserve any respect. That is why he thinks the notion of "mutual respect" cannot always hold as a premise when comparing cultures.
To his mind there is the widely observable development of a modern world culture which gradually overcomes those cultures which are less apt. This looks much like social Darwinism.
No wonder that the book may easily be misunderstood as ultra conservative. In fact, its title would be almost impossible to translate directly into German because of the nazi connotations of the word "race".
The book provides stimulating reading because nowhere else does one get such a pragmatic concept with a material and substantial understanding of culture. Probably everybody has secretly believed that according to his private observations certain nations and cultures are more or less successful and deserve more or less respect. But for the sake of not nurturing prejudices everybody refrains from speaking out.
On the other hand it must be feared that the book will be grist to the mill of those conservative forces in society who have always believed that only they themselves deserve to be rich and powerful because in their blindfolded eyes the lower strata of society lack cultural stamina and don't like to work hard.
Rating: 5
Summary: Dr. Sowell is a top-notch scholar, and this is a great book!
Comment:
From the back cover:
"Alongside Gary Becker's and Theodore Schultz's conception of human capital and Bob Putnam's conception of social capital, we should add Thomas Sowell's notion of cultural capital. In an impressive use of materials drawn from around the world, Sowell describes the enormous impact of cultural capital in employment, education, migration, and politics. One finishes reading this book awed by Sowell's capacity to bring together so much material in such a readable fashion."
--Myron Weiner, Professor of Political Science, M.I.T.
"For nearly a generation, Thomas Sowell has defined the terms of debate on affirmative action. His latest book expands the discussion beyond America's preoccupation with white racism and black disadvantage to examine how different groups fare in widely disparate societies and what role race and culture play in the process. Sowell has no match in his breadth of knowledge on these issues, but he is interested more than simply analyzing data. Race and Culture is ultimately a cautionary tale of American history with broad implications for current public policies directed at racial and ethnic groups in the U.S."
--Linda Chavez, Manhattan Institute
Dr. Thomas Sowell is a black man, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His many books include 'Ethnic America,' and most recently 'Inside American Education.' He also writes a nationally syndicated newspaper column and a bi-weekly column in Forbes magazine. His essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and Fortune. He has also published articles in scholarly journals in the United States and other countries. And, he has sat in for Rush Limbaugh, in his absence, on the EIB Radio Network.
So, he is well qualified to write on this subject, erudite, and much respected.
And, he does not support affirmative action, and his reasons are cogent and many.
This book held my attention from beginning to end, and the heady praise of Weiner and Chavez in the back cover blurbs, I found to be well deserved. The book is a tour de force thst will set standards on this complex subject for decades to come.
Sowell discusses the impact of geographical disparities, as well as of economic differences between peoples as they effect not only incomes or occupations, but also in terms of productivity differences. He points out that racial or national differences alone cannot account for the differences between the cultures of, say, Britain and the Iberian Peninsula.
And, he makes a persuasive case.
Let me suggest that you add this book to your library.
Joseph Pierre,
Author of THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS: Our Journey Through Eternity
Rating: 5
Summary: Cultural Explanations for Racial Differences
Comment: The book explains that culture has a lot to do with racial and ethnic differences and groups often retain their characteristics wherever they go in the world. For example, the Irish are often heavily involved in politics as leaders especially, the Italians have been known to be great architects, the Germans are known to be hard-working farmers, and the Jews are known to high risk loan lenders and also garmet/fashion employees.
The book also covers middleman minorities such as oversees Chinese in Malaysia, Indians in Eastern Africa, and Jews worldwide. It explains why such minorities are resented for their financial success in whatever country they set up shop in and how they get kicked out of the country sometimes even though they greatly helped build the economy. They get accused of exploiting the natives and political pressure is put on them to hire the natives in their industry. Sowell gives the example of Jews who charge high interest for their loans because no one else will take chances on people with poor credit history and who stand a great chance of defaulting on a loan. The Jews must be financially responsible to keep their loan business going so they don't mix too much socially with their customers so as not to take on their bad financial habits.
Cultures and ethnic groups that were once backwards become advanced over time especially if they are conquered by a people with a superior culture. Sowell gives the example of the ancient Britons who were conquered by the Romans and became more advanced culturally than the Irish or Scots who were not conquered.
Sowell also explains that a region must have navigable rivers or or be located on the coastline to be advanced culturally. It is easier to tranport people and goods and therefore ideas in such societies and they become more advanced than rural regions, islands, and mountainous regions that are less populated. He says that one of the reasons that Africa is backward culturally is that there are not many navigable rivers as opposed to Europe.
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Title: Migrations and Cultures: A World View by Thomas Sowell ISBN: 0465045898 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: March, 1997 List Price(USD): $23.50 |
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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: Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell ISBN: 046508138X Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 26 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $32.50 |
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