A Thomas Sowell Reader is the book I've been listening to lately. I wasn't sure I wanted it because I knew it would cover some of the topics in books I've alread read, but it's been a boogood thing to have. Yes it does hae sections I'd already heard but it's good to hear them again and otehrwise it's full of things from other books I haven't read.
What an amazingly sane voice in the midst of utter confusion and cxraziness o bthe subject of race in particular but also pollitics and econimics in general among other things. He was once a liberal himself, in fact he was a Marxist, knew Marx inside out and backwards he said, or something along those lines, because Marx seems at first to speak to the problems of poverty he saw so much of in his early life. Other balacks went that same direction for the same reason, such as Walter Williams and Clarence Thomsas, and like Sowell eventually came to see that Marx wasn't the answer they'd thought, and all became strong conservative boices, which they all thing is the best possible route to a prosperous educated citizenry of all kins of people.
Onbe topic Sowell spends a lot of time on, particularly in a series of three books on it, is how cultures develop in various parts of the world and how culture is the main explanation for discrepancies between people groups. I've been fascinated with his information about how geography affects the development of peoples, the simple fact of what sort of land they live on, what advantages or disadvantages it has for growing food for instance or developing trade withoutopther peoples. Something I for one have never given any thought and I'd have to suppose most others haven't either.
Africa is one huge geographic provblem for its people. Things one doesn't thingk of that they lack that we have in abundance in America and Europe and Asica make simple livelihood a struggle apart from any other factors. Sowell points out that Africa's west coast is a smooth edge, without the indentagtions that make harbors for boats in many other parts of the world. Yes, look tat the majp. One long smooth scoastline. There are some big rivers in Africa but they aren't fed by snow because there are no mountains for it to snow on, so the flow of the rivers is dependent on the season as they are fed only by rainwater. And they are mostly unnavigable because of rapids and waterfalls, not like the big rivers of other parts of the world where ships can travel safely deeply into the country. So the kind of trade that depends on the ability to carry large amounts of supplies can't happen in Africa.
And agriculture suffers from the soil's being radpicly depleted by the growing of crops so that people can't settle in one place for long but have to keep moving to better land. And because of the diseases carried by the tse tse fly they an't have the usual farm animals that are abundant in othert parts of the pworld because they die out rapidly from the diseases, so the land never gets the benetfit of all that animal manure it gets in other places that builtd up its fertility. Not to mention that the animalsthemselves aren't available for the tasks they've been suused for in most other places, for ploughing and harvesting jobs and so on.
Kind of a a staggering picture there of why Africa has never developed a civilization of any greatness or duration. All this is laid out in his book Migreations and Cultures, but exerpted well in the Thomas Sowell Reader. I suppose others must have spent some time thinking about these things but I never ran across them and wow is this stuff crucial to understanding how cultures can develop or fail to develop and how bpeoples can thrive or barely make it. Beethoven could not have existed if Genrmany hadn't had lots of agricultural land and trade possibilities. Etcl.
So I love Thomas owell. He is a sane voice in a miserably mentally deranged poitical environment. He's ninety six now and as far as I know still working and fairly healthy . Some people have lived into their hundreds and I really hope he could, healthy and strong of course, and mentally all there or what would be the point? He's one of the voices we desperately need.
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