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, 08 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ President Obama keeps talking about the jobs his administration is "creating" but there are more people unemployed now than before he took office. How can there be more unemployment after so many jobs have been... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/12/08/jobs_or_snow_jobs 5a6f3472-5154-4550-b01e-8e6a8df2ecde Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT Random thoughts on the passing scene: Sometimes we seem like people on a pleasure boat drifting down the Niagara river, unaware that there are waterfalls up ahead. I don't know what people think is going to happen... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/12/01/random_thoughts 8249d935-b811-4bde-9104-67bf0acf4fd2 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:01:00 GMT No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems-- of which getting elected and re-elected are number one... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/11/24/solving_whose_problem fd580a93-2a1a-45ad-8edb-4020480fca04 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT In the string of amazing decisions made during the first year of the Obama administration, nothing seems more like sheer insanity than the decision to try foreign terrorists, who have committed acts of war against the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/11/17/bowing_to_world_opinion 7420b36f-00a4-49b3-8b87-a207b7c4f22a Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT Random thoughts on the passing scene: If politicians stopped meddling with things they don't understand, there would be a more drastic reduction in the size of government than anyone in either party advocates. It... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/11/10/random_thoughts 7152e10d-732b-4d35-a379-1a81dc5bc6f7 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT What is so wrong with the current medical system in the United States that we are being urged to rush headlong into a new government system that we are not even supposed to understand, because this legislation is... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/11/06/the_costs_of_medical_care_part_iv f3232371-88f9-49de-9368-eb41b9455041 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT One of the strongest talking points of those who want a government-run medical care system is that we simply cannot afford the high and rising costs of medical care under the current system. First of all,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/11/05/the_costs_of_medical_care_part_iii f4dab5e0-022d-45c6-b9bb-6c59d70709e4 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT Although it is cheaper to buy a pint of milk than to buy a quart of milk, nobody considers that to be lowering the price of milk. Although it is cheaper to buy a lower quality of all sorts of goods than to buy a higher... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/11/04/the_costs_of_medical_care_part_ii 0695362f-2a5e-46e7-964d-ddf9ebc2ed77 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT 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