Dismantling America And Other Controversial Essays, by Thomas Sowell
Well, this book certainly lives up to its claim of being filled with controversial essays. For some, especially those who really love Thomas Sowell’s perspective as well as his tendency to get at the heart of issues, this is recommendation enough. And admittedly there is a lot to enjoy here, if you agree largely with the author’s positions. Like many books by people whose political beliefs are rather strong, they are not the sort of books that are likely to be appreciated by those who do not share the author’s positions or are at least not willing to give a high degree of respect to the author’s views. Although I did find a lot to agree with, I tended to find a great many of the essays somewhat rambling or repetitious, but that is the sort of thing that comes easily when a book is assembled out of shorter polemical pieces as this one was. One does not then edit the essays to make sure that the same examples or same statements don’t appear over and over again, likely because one is not likely going to be reading all of them straight through at the same time either.
And there are a lot of essays to be read here, as this book is more than 300 pages and is divided into six parts with four pages worth of essays, some of them multi-part. The book begins with various essays on government policies, including the necessity to deal with ugly realities, the limitations of cheap political theater, and the limits of power, as well as the author’s concerns about America being at a point of no return. After that the author talks about various political issues, dealing with more ugly realities as well as political parties and politicians. After that comes essays on economic issues ,including the costs of medical care as well as various fallacies and confusion about economics. There are some essays on cultural issues as well, including several parts on the fallacy of fairness as well as essays about de-programming students and dealing with grating generations as well as too many fake apologies. After that the author writes some about legal issues, including the relationship between the left and crime as well as the Duke rape case. Finally, the author concludes with some random thoughts, and it must be emphasized that these thoughts are very random.
What it is that makes this book worthwhile even if it is a bit rough around the edges because it is made of smaller essays combined together without a great deal of editing into a larger work? For the most part, this book succeeds because of its firm commitment to telling brutal truths that many people are simply unwilling to deal with. The author does not strike me as a sentimental person–he is pretty harsh on Republicans who fail to be conservative enough for his tastes and he is absolutely brutal when it comes to demolishing the bad logic that runs so rampant when it comes to questions of politics and economics at present. Obviously, the author has a lot to say about economics and politics, and most of it should be red meat to conservative readers, but it is vital to recognize that the author gives no credit at all to good intentions or the way that people like to feel warm and fuzzy or want something to be done even when something should be done. This is a book for those who are unsparing when it comes to dealing with the truth and facts of existence rather than for those who want to feel as if they are good and noble-hearted people.
Edge Induced Cohesion 
Dr. Sowell is a remarkable man. I think that you are right in assessing his intent to present his views through the unabridged essays authored by others, which would explain their redundancy. I read his short bio on Wikipedia and found him to be one of the rare renaissance men of our time. His “take no prisoners” mentality may be due to his rigorous marine training and subsequent Korean War experience. He is a former Marxist-turned-supply-side free market economist. Even his most severe detractors cannot deny his brilliance in a variety of areas–several of which are the rejection of affirmative action (which he states is not an issue exclusive to blacks, but also to women) and to the direct correlation between the rise in a mandated minimum wage and the increase in unemployment (which he witnessed in the Puerto Rican sugar industry).
In his youth, he tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1948) and became a Marine Corps photographer because of his experience in the field. He’s authored more than 30 books in fields other than economics such as IQ with regard to race, and a phenomenom of late talking in children who later became high performers, a condition he termed the “Einstein Syndrome.” Even though the libertarian movement is the one that he would most identify with, he states that he disagrees with several core areas. His educational qualifications–as well as experiential–are impressive, and he provides the back-up for the positions he takes. He has been awarded the highest accolades of the economic world but hates to be labeled and remains surprisingly self-deprecating. At 89 years of age, he is arguably the eminent economist of our time and has certainly earned the right to speak his mind.
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He has earned the right to speak his mind and he definitely has done so. Being a renaissance man myself who definitely tends to run over similar territory over and over again, I found plenty to appreciate and certainly relate to in his writing and approach, for sure. Of his more than 30 books, I have read and reviewed somewhere around a dozen of them or so, all favorably, I should note.
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