Top 10 Best Thomas Sowell Books To Read 2023

Best Thomas Sowell Books

1. Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy

Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy is one of the best Thomas Sowell books that you can buy and you must read it at least once as well. As its name suggests, this book is for every citizen that wants to have a good understanding of economics but doesn’t want to go through the complicated equations or jargon. The author has done a great job in providing good insights and revealing the general principles behind any kind of economy-capitalist, socialist, feudal, and more. Not only has he talked about basic Economics but has also revealed how economic policies work, how economic goals are created and how they are achieved.

He has also written about rent control, the rise and fall of the business, international payments, and so on. One of the best parts is the author has written all this in a readable and simple language that will be easy for anyone to understand. Overall, you will get great insights on economics and the simple laws of economics too. So if you are someone who is just getting started with the economy, this is the book you should read first.

2. Black Rednecks and White Liberals

Black Rednecks and White Liberals are also some of the best Thomas Sowell books that you should know about. The book was published in 2005 and this one also got pretty popular among the readers and it has been appreciated by the critics as well. The author yet again impressed us with his unmatched knowledge of economics and how he made us understand that as well. But this time, the author took a different turn and introduced us to his understanding of history and race.  This book is a compilation of essays where we learn about race and culture across history.

The author has put an emphasis on how the blacks and the Rednecks were treated by the officials and law enforcement officials who were lazy, lawless, and sexually immoral. He has also written about the hatred towards Jewish, Indians in Burma, Japanese in Peru, Armenians in Turkey, etc. He has also shared his view on slavery and took a different path to make us realize what it would have been like and how it impacted the citizens and the civilization. It can be an eye-opening book for everyone and not just the academic. This one was the book that got Thomas Sowell popular.

3. Economic Facts and Fallacies

Economic Facts and Fallacies is another one of the top Thomas Sowell books that you should know about and read once in your life. The book, as its name suggests, talks about the most popular fallacies about economic issues. In his signature style, the author has written this book in a manner that doesn’t require any prior knowledge of economics to understand economics facts and fallacies. The book also talks about many beliefs that are disseminated in the media as well as by the politicians such as urban problems, economic fallacies about academia, race, third world countries, male-female economic differences, and so on.

The book intelligently talks about the economic fallacies, not just the simple crazy ideas, but also the plausibility that gives them the staying power and makes careful examination of their flaws, which is both necessary and important and sometimes can be humorous. The real-world examples give this book a greater depth.

Overall, this is quite an interesting book that talks about many aspects of modern economics and lets you have a better understanding of them as well. So give it a read, you won’t be disappointed.

4. Discrimination and Disparities

Discrimination and Disparities is a must-read book by Thomas Sowell and it has become one of the top books by the author so it was obvious to include it on our list. This book features some great insights about discrimination based on race and also the exploitation of the weaker section of society. The book, in the signature written form by the author, is pretty readable and understandable without any prior knowledge about economics.

The book does not talk about what kind of policies there are that can fix the problems, but it gives you an insight on why so many policies turned out to be counterproductive and what are the major invincible fallacies behind many counterproductive policies. In the final chapter, the author talks about the social vision and its human consequences.

Readers learn how the disparities don’t necessarily mean discrimination and how disparities can manifest without any malicious intervention and can be explained for reasons other than discrimination. Overall, it is a pretty great book that provides us the good knowledge of what discrimination is and how it is not equal to disparities that we witness in society.

5. A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles is another one of the best Thomas Sowell books that you need to read. The book is also one of the highest-rated Thomas Sowell books out there. Political controversies are not very uncommon and they have happened in the past and they will happen in the future as well, but sometimes the common citizen might not know much about them, this is why Thomas Sowell decided to write a book featuring the political controversies and how they originate.

This book isn’t written in an essay-like format, but reading it feels like digging up the research paper. The book talks about the specific patterns that are responsible for the political controversies and also the role played by political differences in these controversies as well. Most of the time, controversies arise because there is a difference between the ideology among the political groups.

Overall, the book has provided an incredible framework for understanding the nature of political struggles due to competing worldviews and views on human nature. So anyone who likes to read about politics and how it affects us should read about it.

6. Intellectuals and Society

Intellectuals and Society are another one of the best Thomas Sowell books that you should invest in. The book talks about the political intelligentsia and how it has helped to spread numerous misconceptions about economics, race, history, foreign policy, and justice.

The author uses empirical evidence and wit and shows the readers how proposals offered to problems are misguided. Even though Sowell is himself an intellectual and he is speaking against his own profession, he is doing so in a manner that is very convincing. We also read about the failures of mistaken intellectuals, as seen in the section on intellectuals and war, which were often catastrophic.

7. The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy

This book talks about the failure of social policies in the last thirty years. Sowell doesn’t look at it as the isolated mistakes for the failure of social policies but as a logical consequence of lack of vision that has led to the disasters in education, crime, family disintegration, and other social pathology. Even though the book came out in 1995, but it feels as relevant today as it was during the time of publication.

8. The Quest for Cosmic Justice

This book talks about the disturbing and dangerous trends and moral issues underlying many of the headline-making political controversies of our times. It also talks about the confused knowledge about justice and how it promotes injustice. This book is filled with years of study and research about where society is headed.

9. Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One

Applied Economics is another one of the best Thomas Sowell books that you should read. The author has talked about the applications of economics in the real-world problems of housing, medical care, discrimination, and economic development. The book is yet again written in plain language without any jargon or equations to find. Overall, if you are interested in applied economics and its applications in the real world, then this one should be your best option.

10. The Housing Boom and Bust

The Housing Boom and Bust is another one of the best Thomas Sowell books that you should read. The housing sector is one of the most complicated ones and we all are interested in it as well, so if you are about to make an investment then you should certainly read it. It’s simple and provides you with some great insights on the subject.

Conclusion

So these are some of the best Thomas Sowell books that you should know about. We have selected these books because of the appreciation they got from the critics as well as the readers across the world. These books should be your first choice to read if you are just getting started with the Thomas Sowell books.

That would be all for now and we hope that you got everything you have been looking for, so go ahead and get these books on Amazon right now.