Thomas Sowell: Peerless Nerd

by Kevin D. Williamson - December 2011 (Publication month) - Commentary Magazine

Thomas Sowell​ is that rarest of things among serious academics: plainspoken. This characteristic, a by-product of both his innate temperament and the intellectual courage for which nature does not deserve the credit, surely has been bad for his career. (Intellectual courage tends to impede the career path of an intellectual.) If he were the obfuscating sort, he might have made Harvard don; if he were the cheaply poetical sort, he might have made U.S. president. His plain speaking also makes him dangerous, and that danger is intensified by the fact that Sowell is black. And not just black, but unassailably black: He’s Southern-born, Harlem-raised, brought up poor, and the first of his family to be educated beyond the sixth grade.

My opinion of Thomas Sowell is more positive than this writer, and he is practically effusive. It always annoys me that so much is made of the fact that Thomas Sowell is black. That is not really what is important. He is brilliant. That is what is important. Some of the greatest thoughts of the last hundred years have flowed from the writings this genius has produced.

This article is something of a Book Review, since it mentions Thomas Sowell's newest book, The Thomas Sowell Reader and recommends it.

It is however a great article that sums up some of the brilliance of an American original, Dr. Thomas Sowell. He is an author and philosopher that everyone should read and study for his unparalleled superiority on a broad range of topics. Even better for me, he is a Marine. Semper Fi Dr. Sowell.