Ken Myers, one of our 10 Modern Wise Men, has a list of the ten books you should read to understand the culture.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
3 comments:
You are welcome to post at this blog. You are asked, however, to refrain from the following:
1. Name-calling;
2. Questioning the motives or integrity of people you have never met just because you disagree with them;
3. Using obscenities or other expressions not appropriate or necessary to civilized discussion;
4. Taking disagreement personally;
5. Demeaning or insulting remarks.
The host will attempt to abide by the same rules and only asks that you not provide him with the temptation to do so in return by violating them.
Failure to comply with these rules can result (depending solely on the arbitrary and inscrutable will of the host) in the deletion of offending posts and suspension of posting privileges. Such measures are more likely if you post anonymously.
Thomas Sowell ought to be on that list, or any list, of great writers. You will learn more about how the world works in one of his books than from the opera omnia of public policy books by the thinkers our beloved media extols. Try "Knowledge and Decisions", for starters.
ReplyDeleteLee,
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that Sowell emphasizes the political as opposed to the cultural. I love is Conflict of Visions and his Vision of the Anointed.
Well, I guess that betrays a lot of my perspective, doesn't it? Politics and economics are subsets of culture, but, aside from Western music, they're about the only parts of the culture that I see.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I should point out that Sowell has written many books on other subjects. His book on the American education system touches politics, but is not strictly politics. Several of his books deal with cultural phenomena such as emigration and slavery. A Conflict of Visions is more philosophical than political, I think; I haven't read Vision of the Anointed, but I gather from reviews that he develops a lot of the themes in the earlier book.
I think Knowledge and Decisions may be his most important book.