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Education: Assumptions versus History: Collected Papers
In the papers collected in Assumptions versus History, Dr. Thomas Sowell takes a hard look at the state of education in our schools and universities. His imperative is to test the assumptions underlying contemporary educational policies and innovations against the historical and contemporary evidence.
204 pages, Paperback
First published November 5, 1985
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About the author
Thomas Sowell
88 books5,608 followersThomas Sowell is an American economist, social philosopher, and political commentator. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. With widely published commentary and books—and as a guest on TV and radio—he became a well-known voice in the American conservative movement as a prominent black conservative. He was a recipient of the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush in 2002.
Sowell was born in Gastonia, North Carolina and grew up in Harlem, New York City. Due to poverty and difficulties at home, he dropped out of Stuyvesant High School and worked various odd jobs, eventually serving in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. Afterward, he took night classes at Howard University and then attended Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1958. He earned a master's degree in economics from Columbia University the next year and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968. In his academic career, he held professorships at Cornell University, Brandeis University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. He has also worked at think tanks including the Urban Institute. Since 1977, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy.
Sowell was an important figure to the conservative movement during the Reagan era, influencing fellow economist Walter E. Williams and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He was offered a position as Federal Trade Commissioner in the Ford administration, and was considered for posts including U.S. Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration, but declined both times.
Sowell is the author of more than 45 books (including revised and new editions) on a variety of subjects including politics, economics, education and race, and he has been a syndicated columnist in more than 150 newspapers. His views are described as conservative, especially on social issues; libertarian, especially on economics; or libertarian-conservative. He has said he may be best labeled as a libertarian, though he disagrees with the "libertarian movement" on some issues, such as national defense.
Sowell was born in Gastonia, North Carolina and grew up in Harlem, New York City. Due to poverty and difficulties at home, he dropped out of Stuyvesant High School and worked various odd jobs, eventually serving in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. Afterward, he took night classes at Howard University and then attended Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1958. He earned a master's degree in economics from Columbia University the next year and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968. In his academic career, he held professorships at Cornell University, Brandeis University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. He has also worked at think tanks including the Urban Institute. Since 1977, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy.
Sowell was an important figure to the conservative movement during the Reagan era, influencing fellow economist Walter E. Williams and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He was offered a position as Federal Trade Commissioner in the Ford administration, and was considered for posts including U.S. Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration, but declined both times.
Sowell is the author of more than 45 books (including revised and new editions) on a variety of subjects including politics, economics, education and race, and he has been a syndicated columnist in more than 150 newspapers. His views are described as conservative, especially on social issues; libertarian, especially on economics; or libertarian-conservative. He has said he may be best labeled as a libertarian, though he disagrees with the "libertarian movement" on some issues, such as national defense.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 31, 2024
Education in colors
Reading Thomas Howell is as much an experience as an education. The thrust of the material in this book is essentially a perspective of the evolution of Blacks in America's institutes of learning at all levels. I personally wasn't happy with his overlong focus on comparative IQ levels when the testing of such proved detrimental to those investing more time in thought than to the authority of the stopwatch. But Sowell is as much a festival for the heart as for the mind.
Reading Thomas Howell is as much an experience as an education. The thrust of the material in this book is essentially a perspective of the evolution of Blacks in America's institutes of learning at all levels. I personally wasn't happy with his overlong focus on comparative IQ levels when the testing of such proved detrimental to those investing more time in thought than to the authority of the stopwatch. But Sowell is as much a festival for the heart as for the mind.
March 6, 2020
Superior scholarship, for those interested in evidence and reason
Thomas Sowell is America’s senior scholar on economics, race, and education. His work must never be countered directly because it cannot be. If your goal is to be thoughtful about these topics, then understanding Sowell is required.
Thomas Sowell is America’s senior scholar on economics, race, and education. His work must never be countered directly because it cannot be. If your goal is to be thoughtful about these topics, then understanding Sowell is required.
January 13, 2026
The earlier chapters are much more interesting. Later ones on postsecondary education far less - particularly in terms on practicality. The last couple almost read now like extended blog posts/reviews where he just wanted to get down his thoughts on certain writers or topics/books.
July 23, 2018
This is one of my favorite writers!! Very informative and VERY relevant today! So many people act as if poor people, of ALL races, can't learn... WRONG!!
June 6, 2020
Collection of papers. Not for the PC crowd.
July 5, 2021
Very clear outline of the decay of public education in the USA.
June 30, 2016
“Education: Assumptions Versus History” by Thomas Sowell consists of a collection of various writings by Sowell and a transcript of his 1977 congressional testimony. As a result, this is not a unified book where Sowell can relate the various chapters and trace them back to a general thesis. However, it is a good look into Sowell’s opinions about and approach to education over a couple decades. I believe that he is somebody whose opinions we need to value when debating education policy in this country.
Sowell generally believes that American education is deeply flawed. In a nutshell, he believes that our system has replaced what works with what sounds good. Education in the United States is especially prone to fads and “solutions” which are not borne out by any more evidence than that they simply sound plausible. He often targets universities because he has been in the university environment for the majority of his life, so he is most familiar with the issues on college campuses. I always enjoy his analysis of affirmative action; he eloquently describes the mismatching of minority students and institutions when robust affirmative action policies are in place. This mismatching sets up minority students to fail, and they often rebel against the academic standards that they cannot meet, pushing for programs and classes that do not have those same standards. Students that would be perfectly qualified for a good state school are instead sent to an Ivy League school where they do not come close to meeting usual admission standards. When these students eventually rebel against the academic standards that they cannot meet at institutions for which they are not suited, racial tensions are stoked and harmful stereotypes are reinforced. Sowell has many complaints about post-secondary education in the United States, but his arguments against affirmative action may be the most memorable.
Anything by Thomas Sowell is worth reading, as anyone who has read my other reviews would likely know is my opinion. Because he has spent so much of his life in academia, he knows what works and what does not. He understands incentives and how our system incentivizes so many harmful policies. His congressional testimony and book reviews contained at the end of the book are changes of pace, as they allow the reader to understand his thoughts in a slightly different setting, whether it is answering someone else’s questions or analyzing someone else’s works.
Sowell generally believes that American education is deeply flawed. In a nutshell, he believes that our system has replaced what works with what sounds good. Education in the United States is especially prone to fads and “solutions” which are not borne out by any more evidence than that they simply sound plausible. He often targets universities because he has been in the university environment for the majority of his life, so he is most familiar with the issues on college campuses. I always enjoy his analysis of affirmative action; he eloquently describes the mismatching of minority students and institutions when robust affirmative action policies are in place. This mismatching sets up minority students to fail, and they often rebel against the academic standards that they cannot meet, pushing for programs and classes that do not have those same standards. Students that would be perfectly qualified for a good state school are instead sent to an Ivy League school where they do not come close to meeting usual admission standards. When these students eventually rebel against the academic standards that they cannot meet at institutions for which they are not suited, racial tensions are stoked and harmful stereotypes are reinforced. Sowell has many complaints about post-secondary education in the United States, but his arguments against affirmative action may be the most memorable.
Anything by Thomas Sowell is worth reading, as anyone who has read my other reviews would likely know is my opinion. Because he has spent so much of his life in academia, he knows what works and what does not. He understands incentives and how our system incentivizes so many harmful policies. His congressional testimony and book reviews contained at the end of the book are changes of pace, as they allow the reader to understand his thoughts in a slightly different setting, whether it is answering someone else’s questions or analyzing someone else’s works.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews