Thomas Sowell was born in North Carolina and grew up in Harlem. As with many others in his neighborhood, Thomas Sowell left home early and did not finish high school. The next few years were difficult ones, but eventually he joined the Marine Corps and became a photographer in the Korean War. After leaving the service, Thomas Sowell entered Harvard University, worked a part-time job as a photographer and studied the science that would become his passion and profession: economics. After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University (1958), Thomas Sowell went on to receive his master's in economics from Columbia University (1959) and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago (1968). In the early '60s, Sowell held jobs as an economist with the Department of Labor and AT&T. But his real interest was in teaching and scholarship. In 1965, at Cornell University, Sowell began the first of many professorships. Thomas Sowell's other teaching assignments include Rutgers University, Amherst College, Brandeis University and the University of California at Los Angeles, where he taught in the early '70s and also from 1984 to 1989. Thomas Sowell has published a large volume of writing. His dozen books, as well as numerous articles and essays, cover a wide range of topics, from classic economic theory to judicial activism, from civil rights to choosing the right college. Moreover, much of his writing is considered ground-breaking -- work that will outlive the great majority of scholarship done today. Though Thomas Sowell had been a regular contributor to newspapers in the late '70s and early '80s, he did not begin his career as a newspaper columnist until 1984. George F. Will's writing, says Sowell, proved to him that someone could say something of substance in so short a space (750 words). And besides, writing for the general public enables him to address the heart of issues without the smoke and mirrors that so often accompany academic writing. In 1990, he won the prestigious Francis Boyer Award, presented by The American Enterprise Institute. Currently Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute in Stanford, Calif. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2009 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ We are incessantly being told that the cost of medical care is "too high"-- either absolutely or as a growing percentage of our incomes. But nothing that is being proposed by the government is likely to lower... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/11/03/the_costs_of_medical_care 6d848057-bab6-46c6-bfbc-86b55677ef93 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT Many years ago, at a certain academic institution, there was an experimental program that the faculty had to vote on as to whether or not it should be made permanent. I rose at the faculty meeting to say that I... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/10/29/dismantling_america_part_ii 0d0ae6ef-d01c-42d0-8e36-504cc525d7ec Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:13:15 GMT Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/10/27/dismantling_america 443af515-de21-412f-aefb-e469598465bc Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT To sue or not to sue? That is the question. After racist statements were made up out of thin air and then attributed to Rush Limbaugh, these were the options he had. It is easy for me to understand that these are... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/10/20/to_sue_or_not 53a8825a-49bf-4abc-a5d4-3a33a62ae3f6 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT It is understandable that many people do not pay nearly as much attention to political issues as they do to practical decisions that they have to make in their own lives. For one thing, they have only one vote among... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/10/14/magic_numbers_in_politics_part_ii e398bbb3-b81c-4f97-a7a5-712a19f8570a Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT Back in the days of the Soviet Union, two Russian economists who had never lived in a country with a free market economy understood something about market economies that many others who have lived in such economies all... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/10/13/magic_numbers_in_politics 33e74a22-3db1-412d-8736-73d2f0ee0c66 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT Random thoughts on the passing scene: Upon learning that the Constitution requires a president to be a natural born citizen, a college student said: "What makes a natural born citizen any more qualified than one born... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/10/07/random_thoughts b8fae733-b05e-4f11-a16c-0905b0210db5 Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:01:19 GMT Recent videos of American children in school singing songs of praise for Barack Obama were a little much, especially for those of us old enough to remember pictures of children singing the praises of dictators like... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/10/06/a_letter_from_a_child 4bbf224a-c9e9-43de-bc12-7b2dc6720a49 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:01:00 GMT Many people, including some conservatives, have been very impressed with how brainy the president and his advisers are. But that is not quite as reassuring as it might seem. It was, after all, Franklin D.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/09/29/the_brainy_bunch 4c2b1a02-1fd5-4481-a8f4-94e2ae0aa81d Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT There is so much for high school seniors and their parents to know about colleges that they not only need to get a lot of information but also need to make sure it is the right kind of information. A number of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/09/23/choosing_the_right_college 4afb275d-1fd7-4ef2-97fc-c8ac675b10c5 Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT It is a good reflection on Americans that they tend to be on the side of the underdog. But it is often hard to tell who is in fact the underdog, or why. Many years ago, there was a big, lumbering catcher named Er http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/09/22/the_underdogs b8210095-60de-4811-a266-58cd722128b8 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT Many years ago, as a small child, I was told one of those old-fashioned fables for children. It was about a dog with a bone in his mouth, who was walking on a log across a stream. The dog looked down into the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/09/15/fables_for_adults 3456ad3b-3e76-4bb8-8d5a-21682d2a4d0b Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:01:00 GMT