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Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative
A shockingly frank memoir from a prize-winning economist, reflecting on his remarkable personal odyssey and his changing positions on identity, race, and belief.
Economist Glenn C. Loury is one of the most prominent public intellectuals of our he’s often radically opposed to the political mainstream, and delights in upending what’s expected of a Black public figure. But more so than the arguments themselves—on affirmative action, institutional racism, Trumpism—his public life has been characterized by fearlessness and a willingness to recalibrate strongly held and forcefully argued beliefs.
Loury grew up on the south side of Chicago, earned a PhD in MIT’s economics program, and became the first Black tenured professor of economics at Harvard at the age of thirty-three. He has been, at turns, a young father, a drug addict, an adulterer, a psychiatric patient, a born-again Christian, a lapsed born-again Christian, a Black Reaganite who has swung from the right to the left and back again. In Late Admissions , Loury examines what it means to chart a sense of self over the course of a tempestuous, but well-considered, life.
Economist Glenn C. Loury is one of the most prominent public intellectuals of our he’s often radically opposed to the political mainstream, and delights in upending what’s expected of a Black public figure. But more so than the arguments themselves—on affirmative action, institutional racism, Trumpism—his public life has been characterized by fearlessness and a willingness to recalibrate strongly held and forcefully argued beliefs.
Loury grew up on the south side of Chicago, earned a PhD in MIT’s economics program, and became the first Black tenured professor of economics at Harvard at the age of thirty-three. He has been, at turns, a young father, a drug addict, an adulterer, a psychiatric patient, a born-again Christian, a lapsed born-again Christian, a Black Reaganite who has swung from the right to the left and back again. In Late Admissions , Loury examines what it means to chart a sense of self over the course of a tempestuous, but well-considered, life.
448 pages, Hardcover
Published May 14, 2024
146 people are currently reading
2776 people want to read
About the author
Glenn C. Loury
22 books120 followersGlenn C. Loury is Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences in the Department of Economics at Brown University. An award-winning economic theorist, he is the author of One by One from the Inside Out: Essays and Reviews on Race and Responsibility in America and coauthor of Race, Incarceration, and American Values.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
May 16, 2024
This was an extremely disappointing book for me. I’ve read some of Glenn’s research work and subscribed to his channel and wanted to know more about his work and how he made his way from the South Side of Chicago to an eminent thinker with independent and well-supported ideas about highly polarized topics. While the beginning was interesting, it devolved (for me) into yet another addiction and recovery book. I only made it to 67% of the book — while I admire many of Glenn’s ideas, he has never been a concise writer or speaker and this book just went on and on for pages about his addiction to crack and his — really pretty astonishing — levels of womanizing (not to mention three children out of wedlock before he turned 20).
I stopped reading at the point where he appeared to be turning his life around and finding religion. I know that a lot of people love memoirs like this but they do nothing for me. I did like his insights near the beginning — watching how people behaved, trying to understand their motivations, and how that motivated some of his research. I also enjoyed reading about his childhood and the way he developed (precociously in all areas). But pretty quickly there seemed to be fewer insights, fewer interesting theories (or at least, less information on them), and more lurid details of a life that I really didn’t want to know about. This book did not change the way I thought about his ideas, but I definitely have zero interest in getting to know him as a person (I’m sure he has very little interest in getting to know me either, to be fair!).
I stopped reading at the point where he appeared to be turning his life around and finding religion. I know that a lot of people love memoirs like this but they do nothing for me. I did like his insights near the beginning — watching how people behaved, trying to understand their motivations, and how that motivated some of his research. I also enjoyed reading about his childhood and the way he developed (precociously in all areas). But pretty quickly there seemed to be fewer insights, fewer interesting theories (or at least, less information on them), and more lurid details of a life that I really didn’t want to know about. This book did not change the way I thought about his ideas, but I definitely have zero interest in getting to know him as a person (I’m sure he has very little interest in getting to know me either, to be fair!).
October 23, 2024
Late Admissions is a singular self-portrait by one of our most notable public intellectuals.
I am quite familiar with Glenn C. Loury. I have listened to many episodes of his podcast, especially his long-running conversations about race with other scholars, including John McWhorter, Roland Fryer, Charles Murray, and others. Loury is a thoughtful and usually generous interlocutor, who is willing to explore ideas and tender critiques that a similarly situated commentator of a different race would likely be excoriated for. This is not the only thing that makes Loury valuable in public discourse though. He is an important connector between many different discourse communities, has served as an important mentor to other rising intellectuals, and has contributed to the field of economics and the political science of race topics.
Late Admissions is a straightforward recapitulation of Loury's turbulent but illustrious life that provides a helpful tour of late 20th and early 21st century political discourse, especially on racial issues. The auto-biography moves quickly through his somewhat unstable yet precocious childhood years in the rough areas of Chicago to his failure to launch (college dropout and teenage father) to his re-launch into academic success (PhD in econ from MIT and first black tenured econ prof at Harvard) to his mid-life crisis (impostor syndrome, incessant infidelity, crack addiction, rehab, etc) to his stable emergence as a wiser public intellectual.
Late Admissions is confessional - so much so that Loury has to explain the issues related to believability and credibility created by his confessions. Some may find the disclosures gauche or that Loury is not contrite enough about them. However, I think it's helpful that Loury has provided an unvarnished portrait of himself. There are certainly tendencies that he shares with many successful men, and these tendencies are usually hidden or obscured with great effort. Loury lifts the veil, speaking honestly about many sensitive subjects.
Loury's honesty, though many of the most serious details were already public, is important to paving the way to a better elite and public discourse on hot button sociopolitical subjects, especially race. Loury's memoir doesn't somehow solve the question of race for America, but he certainly provides a healthier and more nuanced vision.
I'm happy to recommend this book.
I am quite familiar with Glenn C. Loury. I have listened to many episodes of his podcast, especially his long-running conversations about race with other scholars, including John McWhorter, Roland Fryer, Charles Murray, and others. Loury is a thoughtful and usually generous interlocutor, who is willing to explore ideas and tender critiques that a similarly situated commentator of a different race would likely be excoriated for. This is not the only thing that makes Loury valuable in public discourse though. He is an important connector between many different discourse communities, has served as an important mentor to other rising intellectuals, and has contributed to the field of economics and the political science of race topics.
Late Admissions is a straightforward recapitulation of Loury's turbulent but illustrious life that provides a helpful tour of late 20th and early 21st century political discourse, especially on racial issues. The auto-biography moves quickly through his somewhat unstable yet precocious childhood years in the rough areas of Chicago to his failure to launch (college dropout and teenage father) to his re-launch into academic success (PhD in econ from MIT and first black tenured econ prof at Harvard) to his mid-life crisis (impostor syndrome, incessant infidelity, crack addiction, rehab, etc) to his stable emergence as a wiser public intellectual.
Late Admissions is confessional - so much so that Loury has to explain the issues related to believability and credibility created by his confessions. Some may find the disclosures gauche or that Loury is not contrite enough about them. However, I think it's helpful that Loury has provided an unvarnished portrait of himself. There are certainly tendencies that he shares with many successful men, and these tendencies are usually hidden or obscured with great effort. Loury lifts the veil, speaking honestly about many sensitive subjects.
Loury's honesty, though many of the most serious details were already public, is important to paving the way to a better elite and public discourse on hot button sociopolitical subjects, especially race. Loury's memoir doesn't somehow solve the question of race for America, but he certainly provides a healthier and more nuanced vision.
I'm happy to recommend this book.
July 5, 2024
The subtitle Confessions of a Black Conservative is technically true, but this book really is so much more. Glenn Loury is an economist, and is Black, and is probably technically a conservative (as of today), but all of these facts don’t really capture the essence of what this memoir is all about. This book is a case study in the human condition and the human experience.
I heard a quote before I read this book along these lines: “A memoir is not to be trusted unless it reveals something shameful”. Dr. Loury anchors his case for readers trusting him in that quote.
From a “plot” perspective this book has it all: drugs, sex, rise, fall, rehabilitation, intellectual exile, return to the mainstream, disillusionment, come to Jesus (literally) followed (sadly) by a slow decline in faith and much more. I loved Loury’s framing of so many stories by the “cover story” and the “real story” where the cover story was the plausible, socially acceptable explanation that may leave some questions unanswered but was good enough to get by followed by the real story, which allows the readers to say “aha, that makes more sense”.
I found this book because I’m interested in economics and many of the people I follow recommended it. However, I don’t limit this recommendation to economists or people interested in this field. This is a book about what is is like to be a human in a fallen world. An American, a man, and it also gives a solid look at what it would feel like to be Black, from the streets of Chicago and what this would feel like in our current cultural moment. Recommend!
I heard a quote before I read this book along these lines: “A memoir is not to be trusted unless it reveals something shameful”. Dr. Loury anchors his case for readers trusting him in that quote.
From a “plot” perspective this book has it all: drugs, sex, rise, fall, rehabilitation, intellectual exile, return to the mainstream, disillusionment, come to Jesus (literally) followed (sadly) by a slow decline in faith and much more. I loved Loury’s framing of so many stories by the “cover story” and the “real story” where the cover story was the plausible, socially acceptable explanation that may leave some questions unanswered but was good enough to get by followed by the real story, which allows the readers to say “aha, that makes more sense”.
I found this book because I’m interested in economics and many of the people I follow recommended it. However, I don’t limit this recommendation to economists or people interested in this field. This is a book about what is is like to be a human in a fallen world. An American, a man, and it also gives a solid look at what it would feel like to be Black, from the streets of Chicago and what this would feel like in our current cultural moment. Recommend!
June 19, 2024
Wow. I found this to be an incredible and really interesting memoir. While I disagree with a number of Loury’s policies and beliefs, I appreciate how deeply he questions and investigates issues. I respect the way he seriously engages with arguments from both sides of the political spectrum and doesn’t dismiss anything without genuinely considering the merits of the argument. Needless to say, it was very intellectually engaging and I like the way he writes. At the same time, it was at times hard to reconcile the respect I have for his intelligence with his deeply disrespectful behavior towards his wife, his friends, his family, and just about all the important people in his life at one point or another. But the brutally honest way he wrote this memoir was so frank and disarming that it was hard to really form moral judgements. That was probably intentional on his part. Anyway highly recommend even if (and maybe especially if?) you disagree with his politics.
December 15, 2024
Linda deserved better.
May 18, 2024
a remarkable book
A rarity: brutally honest memoir that is also intellectually engaging and contradictory - as real people tend to be. Highly recommended
A rarity: brutally honest memoir that is also intellectually engaging and contradictory - as real people tend to be. Highly recommended
June 6, 2024
Was a fan of Glenn, I made it to page 370 then had enough.
May 27, 2024
A great book on multiple levels
This is a great book. It is ostensibly an interesting and revealing memoir. But at a higher level of abstraction it is a case study in (I) how individuals fight to maintain integrity while being part of groups that both empower that individual and encourage the compromise of that integrity, (ii) how narcissism can pervade one's life and it's destructive and productive effects. If we are honest readers we can see our own struggles with these issues mirrored (albeit in the extreme) in Glenn Loury's account of his own life.
This is a great book. It is ostensibly an interesting and revealing memoir. But at a higher level of abstraction it is a case study in (I) how individuals fight to maintain integrity while being part of groups that both empower that individual and encourage the compromise of that integrity, (ii) how narcissism can pervade one's life and it's destructive and productive effects. If we are honest readers we can see our own struggles with these issues mirrored (albeit in the extreme) in Glenn Loury's account of his own life.
October 25, 2025
The first three quarters of the book I thought this might make my list of best books this year. The author clearly understands his past sins and the wreck he made of his life. It is a fascinating autobiography of someone growing up in the hood, in a poor black family, who really made something of himself and became a respected economics professor. His moral failings and infidelity punctuate the narrative all the way through in a way that shows that he does deeply regret the pain he caused others. There is even a conversion story of sorts, although I think the Christians he fell in with were unfortunately liberal.
Yet in the end, he ends up falling away from his faith. I admire his being honest about his story but wish it had gone in a different direction.
Yet in the end, he ends up falling away from his faith. I admire his being honest about his story but wish it had gone in a different direction.
July 13, 2024
I lost a lot of respect for Glenn. I am not a person who throws the baby out with the bath water, so I can separate Glenn's good ideas from his abhorrent personal life, but I think this book will cause many to dismiss his previous and current work in social commentary and possibly even economics. I question why anyone would write about such things as smoking crack in his academic office on campus, smoking crack in rehab, cheating on his dying wife, cheating with his best friend's wife, telling his son that he was bored with his family, and choosing not to see or call a son he had abandoned and agreed to contact. Really, I question why anyone would do those things in the first place. I came away from this book thinking Glenn has no shame, which has in the past and continues to this day to serve him poorly.
January 30, 2025
An interesting self-portrait by a flawed man still seeking and still in flux. Loury examines the way his actions, choices, and viewpoints have evolved over the years. It’s a story filled with (extreme) highs and lows, and although he’s very candid about his mistakes, it’s not always clear what he’s learned from them. At one point Loury observes: “To live the life I wanted, I could not live only for myself. At nearly forty-five years of age, I was finally getting it.” Except that almost 30 years later, he's obviously still trying to work all that out.
June 30, 2024
Enjoyable, interesting, well-written, and transparent, often painfully. Having read a lot of memoirs of late, I really appreciate his prologue in which he exposes the truth about memoirs being a dance between objectivity and concealment. I both listened and read, and he reads the audio which is always a plus for a memoir.
June 20, 2024
I knew a little about his bad boy background from his conversations with John McWhorter, but WOW. Definitely not the humdrum life one's mind goes to with the word "economist". I couldn't put it down, read most of it over 2 days, hence 5 stars.
June 22, 2024
I would say that I couldn’t put down this deeply candid (sometimes overly so?) autobiography of a man I have followed for a bit. I almost wonder about his obsession with picking a side politically vs picking issues but maybe that comes from having been a longtime brilliant economist and academic.
July 16, 2024
Very refreshing to read such an honest account of someone's life. Remarkable man, flaws and all.
June 17, 2024
Glenn Loury is a first rate theoretical economist with an MIT PhD (and their program is heavily dependent on math). After a distinguished career in several important universities (Northwestern, MIT, Harvard, Brown) and prominent roles in a number of consultations he decided to write a memoir (in my book - Of Course It’s True Except for a Couple of Lies) I quoted Thomas Sowell’s quote from Benjamin Disraeli who argued that people Loury’s age tend to engage in “anecdotage”. Loury begins the book with a reflection on the responsibilities of a memoirist and his readers.
The role of the memoirist is to either explain or hide the strange things in his life and the reader’s responsibility is to sort through the stories and to discover what part of the book is true.
Loury has led an interesting life. He grew up poor in south Chicago; had a variety of positive and negative influences from his mother and father and uncles. He hooked up and then married his first wife at 18 (she was 15) and then started out with a dizzying round of assignations but during the same time he started a degree at IIT (and failed out), stole a car, had a series of missteps until he was able to gain a scholarship to Northwestern where he excelled in both math and economics. So MIT was a natural place to do a PhD. He went through a series of academic billets where he often failed but also where he did some very creative thinking on theoretical problems.
But his life was not all roses. He got hooked up with his future wife Linda (who was also an economist who studied at MIT but ended up at Tufts) while he was in the process of divorcing his first wife. He also got hooked on Crack, not exactly the standard career path for a highly trained economist. He started out as a liberal but then became a key spokesman for Reaganomics. But he drifted back into liberalism and then back to a unique brand of conservatism.
For the last couple of years he has had a first rate podcast called the Glenn Show which also includes Columbia linguist John McWhorter. Even if you don’t buy the book check out the podcast.
For me one of the most interesting parts of the book is his discussion about affirmative action. He was critical at the time of three prominent conservative authors (Charles Murray/Dinesh D'Souza/Abigail Thernstrom) each of whom wrote major books critical of liberal approaches to race issues. I read all three books at the time and thought that Loury’s criticisms were mostly on target.
I’ve only included a part of his narrative but it gives you an idea of the range of events in his life it makes for interesting reading. So did he convince me that he had some interesting insights to a life very different from mine? The answer is yes. But his ability to fall to temptations coupled with some first rate research on economic issues kept me engaged.
The role of the memoirist is to either explain or hide the strange things in his life and the reader’s responsibility is to sort through the stories and to discover what part of the book is true.
Loury has led an interesting life. He grew up poor in south Chicago; had a variety of positive and negative influences from his mother and father and uncles. He hooked up and then married his first wife at 18 (she was 15) and then started out with a dizzying round of assignations but during the same time he started a degree at IIT (and failed out), stole a car, had a series of missteps until he was able to gain a scholarship to Northwestern where he excelled in both math and economics. So MIT was a natural place to do a PhD. He went through a series of academic billets where he often failed but also where he did some very creative thinking on theoretical problems.
But his life was not all roses. He got hooked up with his future wife Linda (who was also an economist who studied at MIT but ended up at Tufts) while he was in the process of divorcing his first wife. He also got hooked on Crack, not exactly the standard career path for a highly trained economist. He started out as a liberal but then became a key spokesman for Reaganomics. But he drifted back into liberalism and then back to a unique brand of conservatism.
For the last couple of years he has had a first rate podcast called the Glenn Show which also includes Columbia linguist John McWhorter. Even if you don’t buy the book check out the podcast.
For me one of the most interesting parts of the book is his discussion about affirmative action. He was critical at the time of three prominent conservative authors (Charles Murray/Dinesh D'Souza/Abigail Thernstrom) each of whom wrote major books critical of liberal approaches to race issues. I read all three books at the time and thought that Loury’s criticisms were mostly on target.
I’ve only included a part of his narrative but it gives you an idea of the range of events in his life it makes for interesting reading. So did he convince me that he had some interesting insights to a life very different from mine? The answer is yes. But his ability to fall to temptations coupled with some first rate research on economic issues kept me engaged.
February 17, 2025
It’s about an interesting black intellectual who’s managed to transcend the tribalism of race that goes along with being a public intellectual these days in the US. Sadly we’re at a point where one cannot disagree with the “correct” opinion on current heated problems of race relations without getting censored and relegated to the likes of Nazis on the big social platforms. Unless one is black that is. Or maybe non-white.
Glenn Loury definitely is black and so he caught my attention with having an informed, non-tribal opinion on the killings of unarmed blacks by the police. Most of them being violent and trying to grab the gun from the police officer is kind of unfair to the term “unarmed” though. In fact you can check yourself about all the cases of victims of 2015/2016 police shootings in an interactive Guardian article "The counted". You can filter results by race, by the victim being armed/unarmed etc. Maybe lesson one of how to not get shot by the police is to not fight them with your fists. Also there have always been a lot more white victims of unarmed police shootings but that is, of course, irrelevant because legacy media wants to peddle racism to control the sheep.
Loury has an interesting background being an academic in economics and mathematics so he often has an original, fresh viewpoint. For example he published a paper demonstrating how affirmative action actually has the opposite effect, as is usual for government programs, by reducing the incentive for the targeted minority to attain the needed level for the sought after positions thus increasing the ostensible inequality even more.
He comes off as a very polished academic intellectual so when he hinted that he had a very dark past and he would write about all of it in his memoir, it spiked my interest. And boy didn’t he disappoint! He was a crack addict, sex addict, had a million children with several women, slept with his best friend’s wife and kept cheating on his wife while she was dying from cancer, had his reputation almost destroyed by being involved in public dramas regarding his philandering and being a crack addict but he somehow persisted in being a public intellectual.
It’s quite ironical that he fights against the stereotype that blacks do more crime, even though he agrees with the actual statistics, and even he, a successful intellectual was a criminal and quite a rotten person for most of his life. Maybe not anymore but I’m not convinced actually.
Glenn Loury definitely is black and so he caught my attention with having an informed, non-tribal opinion on the killings of unarmed blacks by the police. Most of them being violent and trying to grab the gun from the police officer is kind of unfair to the term “unarmed” though. In fact you can check yourself about all the cases of victims of 2015/2016 police shootings in an interactive Guardian article "The counted". You can filter results by race, by the victim being armed/unarmed etc. Maybe lesson one of how to not get shot by the police is to not fight them with your fists. Also there have always been a lot more white victims of unarmed police shootings but that is, of course, irrelevant because legacy media wants to peddle racism to control the sheep.
Loury has an interesting background being an academic in economics and mathematics so he often has an original, fresh viewpoint. For example he published a paper demonstrating how affirmative action actually has the opposite effect, as is usual for government programs, by reducing the incentive for the targeted minority to attain the needed level for the sought after positions thus increasing the ostensible inequality even more.
He comes off as a very polished academic intellectual so when he hinted that he had a very dark past and he would write about all of it in his memoir, it spiked my interest. And boy didn’t he disappoint! He was a crack addict, sex addict, had a million children with several women, slept with his best friend’s wife and kept cheating on his wife while she was dying from cancer, had his reputation almost destroyed by being involved in public dramas regarding his philandering and being a crack addict but he somehow persisted in being a public intellectual.
It’s quite ironical that he fights against the stereotype that blacks do more crime, even though he agrees with the actual statistics, and even he, a successful intellectual was a criminal and quite a rotten person for most of his life. Maybe not anymore but I’m not convinced actually.
July 13, 2024
BLUF: the writing is direct/dry. However, full of intimate behaviors/sentiments and their underlying motivations. Blanket "conservative" is a stretch, Loury is an economic/philosophical savant w/ some well rooted street smarts. His amalgamation of opinions is hard to categorize. However, given what Black folk should think and espouse in public, he's a sell-out red.
TLDR:
sometime 2018-2020 i wandered into Loury. I felt traumatized from dating someone diagnosed and in treatment for a cluster b. Online resources seemed to focus on the gender identity politics surrounding such diagnoses. LSS-those experiencing cluster b symptoms are the real victims, everyone exposed to their behaviors should be compassionate, empathetic and patiently lovingly-enduring... Then I found a "heterodox" podcast interview of Meghan Daum by Loury & John McWhorter... Similar late admissions, during the podcast, has me trusting that Loury has a more full-breadth understanding of social issues. This led me down the rabbit hole of scrutinizing identity politics beyond main stream media.
I have become a fan of the podcast, critical thinking and being comfortable with my opinions being opposite of others in polite company. Comfort in espousing those opinions, in that company, work in progress... This book is a reflection of Loury's life, navigating human frailty and heterodox views from a hood rooted yet brilliant black intellectual.
TLDR:
sometime 2018-2020 i wandered into Loury. I felt traumatized from dating someone diagnosed and in treatment for a cluster b. Online resources seemed to focus on the gender identity politics surrounding such diagnoses. LSS-those experiencing cluster b symptoms are the real victims, everyone exposed to their behaviors should be compassionate, empathetic and patiently lovingly-enduring... Then I found a "heterodox" podcast interview of Meghan Daum by Loury & John McWhorter... Similar late admissions, during the podcast, has me trusting that Loury has a more full-breadth understanding of social issues. This led me down the rabbit hole of scrutinizing identity politics beyond main stream media.
I have become a fan of the podcast, critical thinking and being comfortable with my opinions being opposite of others in polite company. Comfort in espousing those opinions, in that company, work in progress... This book is a reflection of Loury's life, navigating human frailty and heterodox views from a hood rooted yet brilliant black intellectual.
September 13, 2024
This is a book that shows the author mostly in a bad light. It is crazy how a man with such a high intellect ended up doing so many stupid things. I don't say that to demean him , I just find it interesting. As Thomas Sowell said "Intellect is not wisdom". Despite all of the stupid things he did he owned up to them and did a good job of explaining what made him do the things he did and what the consequences were. It is not really a political book.
This book reminds me of "Radical son" by David Horowitz. I recommend reading that one if you liked this book. I watch Glenn's show on youtube all of the time and he is a very entertaining speaker no matter what the subject is.
This book reminds me of "Radical son" by David Horowitz. I recommend reading that one if you liked this book. I watch Glenn's show on youtube all of the time and he is a very entertaining speaker no matter what the subject is.
August 30, 2024
Very interesting, honest and well-written book. Loury has had a very unique, eventful and in some ways inspiring life. In other ways, he's been incredibly depraved and feckless. He's clearly grown though; his ability to confess everything he did, reflect and take accountability (for the most part) shows significant personal development. 'Conservative' isn't an accurate label for him though. He's right-leaning, but you can't have such a long history of libertinism, debauchery, be a deadbeat father to one of your children, and then claim to be conservative.
Read
October 25, 2024This memoir is definitely confessional, and I enjoyed the fact that it starts and ends with game theory.
October 26, 2024
Shocking is putting it mildly. It would seem that this book is a way to set it all aside. If you’re going to sin, why not sin big?
It was a book worth spending a week reading, a life worth examining. Also, reading this book took me down a road that I haven’t traveled before.
It was a book worth spending a week reading, a life worth examining. Also, reading this book took me down a road that I haven’t traveled before.
July 6, 2024
Loury provides a sad, inspiring, intellectual journey in his book that you should read to get an overview of economics, spirituality, underground economy, and more.
July 1, 2024
I enjoyed reading about the events that caused Professor Loury to shift from liberal to conservative and back ... And back again ... Over the years. I think there are lessons to be learned here by the left ... That oftentimes the things they think are helping the cause are actually turning off left leaning moderates and pushing them to the other team.
November 23, 2025
Book Review
Glenn Loury
5/5 stars
"Hedonic treadmills, academic peaks, and mental illness"
427 pages
*******
Sore points:
No pictures
No index.
No bibliography.
This book could be read in a variety of ways:
1. Sometimes people who are very bright in one way are very stupid in others. I don't know how you can be a PhD in mathematical Economics and get caught with a crack pipe on the back seat of your car. It's also amazing the size of the crack habit: $300 at the ATM limit per day back in the 1980s.
2. It could be a book about the hedonic treadmill. Lots of celebrities have this problem: after you have mounted your 100th woman, then what exactly is the benefit of the 101st? Drugs are often the next logical step in looking for that peak experience.
Glenn just could not control his slappybag, and out of all the playmates he could have found it had to be his friend's wife. (Who already had two kids.)
3. It could be a book about how if a man is meant to drown, he will drown in a spoonful of water. This guy had everything that an intellectual could want, and he became a crackhead? (And how stupid do you have to be to be driving around in a car with a crack pipe on the back seat? [p.259]).
4. It could be a book about how the enemy is in the mirror (p 304). Tom Schelling, the Nobel prize winner, has talked about this as the problem of self command and uses game theoretic models.
5. It could be a book about the difference between declared and revealed preferences: Glenn posed as a conservative pundit, and in the meanwhile had a son that he did not meet until he was 30 years old. (And he was slow about paying the child support.)
6. It could be about an academic living so far from The Real World that he falls off the deep end. By the time he got to the end of this book, he is doing the typical academic "defending the rights of criminals," where he is worried about the comfort of prisoners and deals with it as an issue of moral accounting.
7. It could be about those ugly stereotypes about black men to which he put paid. Fathering a whole bunch of children all over the place. Supporting almost none of them. And then putting together a relationship with them after somebody else had done all of the heavy lifting of raising them. (We've seen that before!)
*******
Glen Loury is 77 years old and he writes from the perspective of a child of the Great Migration.
My parents are of this generation, and it seems like they have a lot of things in common:
a. Conservative
b. They grew up in all black communities with a good degree of social stability
c. As is the case with such people, they are generally nonplussed about living and working with whites, and there is none of the frustration of later generations.
This author is a rare intersection of the subset of people who can both model the world mathematically and have writing facility to connect with readers. (And even rarer that there is a person of African descent who has this level of cognitive ability to get to a point to make these observations.)
It seems that Chicago of this time was a hotbed of all sorts of radical black activism:
1. (p.49)"This is the Chicago of Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam...."
2. ".... Black nationalist demand for a Republic of New Africa, which would encompass five southern states and funnel reparations payments to its all black citizenry."
3. " They parsed by both verses and debate whether African-Americans are the true descendants of the Old Testament's Israelites."
Of course there is Frantz Fanon, Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin and Malcolm X.
Second order thoughts:
1. It is amazing just how long a lot of these political movements have been around: the author is writing about Hebrew Israelites in Chicago 60 years ago.
2. Eric Hoffer has written that "The segregated Negro in the South is less frustrated than the nonsegregated Negro in the North" and it really rings true and that these mass movements are in Chicago instead of the segregated South that the blacks had left.
This comes up again and again in this book: the author grew up in an area as black as the Ace of spades, and going to school with different people was a matter of fact for him. But, the angriest black people that he seems to have met were the ones who grew up in all white environments (p.87).
3. The author does like what a lot of smart people who are used to being Number 1 in their High School environment do in undergraduate: fall apart.
4. Some people are simultaneously very smart and very stupid. Some of the bizarre lack of judgment that lead to these situations that the author finds himself in.....
5. The author has an overweening ego, but just the same seems to be self-aware and shows us himself pretty honestly.
6. This guy is weird. There are the events around a black woman that he was dating falsely accusing him of assault (p.231). If he grew up around black people, as he says he did, then by the time he was 12 years old he would have known that black women weaponized the justice system in personal disputes (CPS, the police, etc).
What normal man has available white women to choose from and passes them over to take a shrewish, odoriferous, falsely accusing black woman? (Did he get what he deserved?)
Factoids:
Black mathematical economist: Glenn Loury, Donald Brown, David Blackwell.
(87) I don't know if the author meant to tell it, but it sure does seem like more African ancestry is associated with even lower academic achievement. ("... Skin color is about all we have in common. And sometimes, giving her light skin many of them are, there's not even that.)
Quotes:
(88) .... If he walked into the upstairs room during a barbecue at Aunt Eloise's house and tried to sell.... His ideas about blackness, getting laughed out of the place would be the best possible outcome for him.
(178) I saw in them another iteration of the "brothers" at Northwestern who grew up comfortable and coddled and then assumed the mantle of black radicalism in order to assert The authority their race supposedly granted them.
(179) Black people needed to take responsibility for their lives instead of relying on the next government program to bail them out.
(183) I also have no moral qualms about paying for sex. With my economist's way of thinking, it's easy to persuade myself the prostitution is nothing more than a transaction between consenting adults.
(250) I kept the necessary materials in my car, where I could cook and smoke a crack if I didn't have enough time alone at home. Often, I was driving around Boston and what was essentially a makeshift mobile drug lab..... Crack wasn't a distraction from my life. The opposite was the case.
(294) They prayed and prayed..... Sister Arlene even began to pray in tongues.... They 2 had made up their minds. They were going to witness a baptismal miracle, even if they had to stand there all day. Something had to give. Finally, not knowing what else to do, I open my mouth and babbles gibberish for maybe 10 seconds in a forced effort to speak tongues.
(312) Don[ald Brown] didn't want to be brought to MIT as a "black economist," he wanted to be appreciated as an economist, full stop.... He simply believed that for black economists to be taken seriously, they needed to meet the same standards as everybody else.
(411) "Systemic racism" had become the catch all definition of everything having to do with blackness.
(Various places) There is the cover story and there is the real story.
Glenn Loury
5/5 stars
"Hedonic treadmills, academic peaks, and mental illness"
427 pages
*******
Sore points:
No pictures
No index.
No bibliography.
This book could be read in a variety of ways:
1. Sometimes people who are very bright in one way are very stupid in others. I don't know how you can be a PhD in mathematical Economics and get caught with a crack pipe on the back seat of your car. It's also amazing the size of the crack habit: $300 at the ATM limit per day back in the 1980s.
2. It could be a book about the hedonic treadmill. Lots of celebrities have this problem: after you have mounted your 100th woman, then what exactly is the benefit of the 101st? Drugs are often the next logical step in looking for that peak experience.
Glenn just could not control his slappybag, and out of all the playmates he could have found it had to be his friend's wife. (Who already had two kids.)
3. It could be a book about how if a man is meant to drown, he will drown in a spoonful of water. This guy had everything that an intellectual could want, and he became a crackhead? (And how stupid do you have to be to be driving around in a car with a crack pipe on the back seat? [p.259]).
4. It could be a book about how the enemy is in the mirror (p 304). Tom Schelling, the Nobel prize winner, has talked about this as the problem of self command and uses game theoretic models.
5. It could be a book about the difference between declared and revealed preferences: Glenn posed as a conservative pundit, and in the meanwhile had a son that he did not meet until he was 30 years old. (And he was slow about paying the child support.)
6. It could be about an academic living so far from The Real World that he falls off the deep end. By the time he got to the end of this book, he is doing the typical academic "defending the rights of criminals," where he is worried about the comfort of prisoners and deals with it as an issue of moral accounting.
7. It could be about those ugly stereotypes about black men to which he put paid. Fathering a whole bunch of children all over the place. Supporting almost none of them. And then putting together a relationship with them after somebody else had done all of the heavy lifting of raising them. (We've seen that before!)
*******
Glen Loury is 77 years old and he writes from the perspective of a child of the Great Migration.
My parents are of this generation, and it seems like they have a lot of things in common:
a. Conservative
b. They grew up in all black communities with a good degree of social stability
c. As is the case with such people, they are generally nonplussed about living and working with whites, and there is none of the frustration of later generations.
This author is a rare intersection of the subset of people who can both model the world mathematically and have writing facility to connect with readers. (And even rarer that there is a person of African descent who has this level of cognitive ability to get to a point to make these observations.)
It seems that Chicago of this time was a hotbed of all sorts of radical black activism:
1. (p.49)"This is the Chicago of Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam...."
2. ".... Black nationalist demand for a Republic of New Africa, which would encompass five southern states and funnel reparations payments to its all black citizenry."
3. " They parsed by both verses and debate whether African-Americans are the true descendants of the Old Testament's Israelites."
Of course there is Frantz Fanon, Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin and Malcolm X.
Second order thoughts:
1. It is amazing just how long a lot of these political movements have been around: the author is writing about Hebrew Israelites in Chicago 60 years ago.
2. Eric Hoffer has written that "The segregated Negro in the South is less frustrated than the nonsegregated Negro in the North" and it really rings true and that these mass movements are in Chicago instead of the segregated South that the blacks had left.
This comes up again and again in this book: the author grew up in an area as black as the Ace of spades, and going to school with different people was a matter of fact for him. But, the angriest black people that he seems to have met were the ones who grew up in all white environments (p.87).
3. The author does like what a lot of smart people who are used to being Number 1 in their High School environment do in undergraduate: fall apart.
4. Some people are simultaneously very smart and very stupid. Some of the bizarre lack of judgment that lead to these situations that the author finds himself in.....
5. The author has an overweening ego, but just the same seems to be self-aware and shows us himself pretty honestly.
6. This guy is weird. There are the events around a black woman that he was dating falsely accusing him of assault (p.231). If he grew up around black people, as he says he did, then by the time he was 12 years old he would have known that black women weaponized the justice system in personal disputes (CPS, the police, etc).
What normal man has available white women to choose from and passes them over to take a shrewish, odoriferous, falsely accusing black woman? (Did he get what he deserved?)
Factoids:
Black mathematical economist: Glenn Loury, Donald Brown, David Blackwell.
(87) I don't know if the author meant to tell it, but it sure does seem like more African ancestry is associated with even lower academic achievement. ("... Skin color is about all we have in common. And sometimes, giving her light skin many of them are, there's not even that.)
Quotes:
(88) .... If he walked into the upstairs room during a barbecue at Aunt Eloise's house and tried to sell.... His ideas about blackness, getting laughed out of the place would be the best possible outcome for him.
(178) I saw in them another iteration of the "brothers" at Northwestern who grew up comfortable and coddled and then assumed the mantle of black radicalism in order to assert The authority their race supposedly granted them.
(179) Black people needed to take responsibility for their lives instead of relying on the next government program to bail them out.
(183) I also have no moral qualms about paying for sex. With my economist's way of thinking, it's easy to persuade myself the prostitution is nothing more than a transaction between consenting adults.
(250) I kept the necessary materials in my car, where I could cook and smoke a crack if I didn't have enough time alone at home. Often, I was driving around Boston and what was essentially a makeshift mobile drug lab..... Crack wasn't a distraction from my life. The opposite was the case.
(294) They prayed and prayed..... Sister Arlene even began to pray in tongues.... They 2 had made up their minds. They were going to witness a baptismal miracle, even if they had to stand there all day. Something had to give. Finally, not knowing what else to do, I open my mouth and babbles gibberish for maybe 10 seconds in a forced effort to speak tongues.
(312) Don[ald Brown] didn't want to be brought to MIT as a "black economist," he wanted to be appreciated as an economist, full stop.... He simply believed that for black economists to be taken seriously, they needed to meet the same standards as everybody else.
(411) "Systemic racism" had become the catch all definition of everything having to do with blackness.
(Various places) There is the cover story and there is the real story.
September 27, 2024
This is not so much a review of the book as it is just an observation from someone who hasn’t had to deal firsthand with addiction. What I want to say is that I think it is not uncommon for someone who is such a master of one’s field (economics) as Glenn Loury is, to almost have to have an addictive personality in ORDER to become as accomplished in one’s field like he is. I personally have never felt passionate about really anything to such a degree that I could become an expert on any subject or any skill.
So I think I am just not wired in a way that would lead me down a path of being addicted to any deleterious substances or behaviors.
So, what I’m getting at is that the very part of Glenn Louth’s brain that makes him exceptional in his field, is the same part of his brain that unfortunately makes him susceptible to the bad behaviors that he confesses to in his book.
I am not saying everyone who is a master of their field is addicted to bad actions too, I am just suggesting there may well be a connection.
I should be grateful, I suppose, that I don’t have any passions, anything I’m trying to constantly become better at, because maybe I too would be the kind of person who could become addicted to self destructive behaviors too.
So I think I am just not wired in a way that would lead me down a path of being addicted to any deleterious substances or behaviors.
So, what I’m getting at is that the very part of Glenn Louth’s brain that makes him exceptional in his field, is the same part of his brain that unfortunately makes him susceptible to the bad behaviors that he confesses to in his book.
I am not saying everyone who is a master of their field is addicted to bad actions too, I am just suggesting there may well be a connection.
I should be grateful, I suppose, that I don’t have any passions, anything I’m trying to constantly become better at, because maybe I too would be the kind of person who could become addicted to self destructive behaviors too.
June 5, 2024
What an interesting life
Halfway through it I wanted to choke the man. Too many stupid decisions. It took a while but I finally figured this out.
Honestly always wins in the end. Thanks Glenn.
Halfway through it I wanted to choke the man. Too many stupid decisions. It took a while but I finally figured this out.
Honestly always wins in the end. Thanks Glenn.
July 17, 2024
I'm a big fan of Glenn Loury's commentary, and so I was really excited to read this book. I expected it to be a book I'd give 5-stars to. The long and short of it is that, although the book is really good in places, some of the details revealed were so appalling that the book hardly seems redemptive. Not that it necessarily has to be to be worth reading. But I wasn't satisfied with the conclusion that we just have to keep struggling against our inner demons. Can we really not defeat them? Isn't that what Loury ultimately implies here? I will continue to admire and respect Loury for his public commentary, but if I'm being honest, I have to say that reading this has diminished my respect for him a bit, even when I take into account the considerable courage and honesty it evidently took to write it.
July 22, 2024
This was a real slog for me to get through. I considered giving up about halfway throughout I soldered on, and I'm glad I did.
At the point I nearly gave up, I was exhausted with hearing about all of Glen's worsening and continuing drug use, as well as his serial infidelity. It really seemed pointless and unnecessary. However, as the saga continued, eventually, he (and you) began to realize just how powerful a pull one's community has on one's life and decisions.
This is definitely not an easy read, and it really affirms that all people are complicated and multi-faceted; full of contradictions. Trying to reduce them to the lowest common denominator, or describe them in terms of stereotypes just doesn't work.
At the point I nearly gave up, I was exhausted with hearing about all of Glen's worsening and continuing drug use, as well as his serial infidelity. It really seemed pointless and unnecessary. However, as the saga continued, eventually, he (and you) began to realize just how powerful a pull one's community has on one's life and decisions.
This is definitely not an easy read, and it really affirms that all people are complicated and multi-faceted; full of contradictions. Trying to reduce them to the lowest common denominator, or describe them in terms of stereotypes just doesn't work.
July 8, 2024
Glenn Loury är knappast ett household name så det tåls att tidigt nämna att Loury är svart, ekonom, och konservativ. Presenterat i den ordningen bör den sistnämnda konservativa etiketten landa lite som en överraskning. Han är även en av USAs mest insiktsfulla offentligt intellektuella, och har varit en del av det amerikanska politiska och kulturella samtalet i snart 50 år. I Late admissions berättar Glenn Loury en historia som på ytan framstår som motsägelsefull och stöpt i hyckleri.
Glenn växer upp i den sämre delen av Chicago, är duktig i skolan men lider av inre demoner som kommer definiera hans brokiga väg till både relationsmässiga och akademiska framgångar och misslyckanden. Efter att ha blivit pappa kort efter high school kombinerar Glenn ett par år av enklare jobb med collegeförberedande kvällsstudier på den lokala skolan. Därefter accepteras han till Northwestern där han tar för sig, gör sig ett namn och finner flera mentorer - däribland Jonathan Hughes som ständigt påminner den kvantitativt begåvade Glenn (hans degree är i matematik) att ekonomi är mer än bara ekvationer. Glenn beskrivs som ett underbarn och efter studierna vid Northwestern erbjuds han att doktorera i ekonomi vid MIT under en handfull framtida nobelpristagare. Glenn är inkvoterad pga sin etnicitet men hans nästan uteslutande judiska professorer skojar med honom om ”att han är så begåvad att han skulle ha accepterats till programmet även om han var judisk.”
Sedan Glenn var ung har han velat vara en ”player”, en person av betydelse oavsett sammanhanget han finner sig i. Vid MIT vandrar han omkring with a chip on his shoulder. Han känner sig malplacerad bland de andra doktoranderna som har en helt annan referensram än han själv, en förfinad smak som han tillskriver deras socio-ekonomiska härkomst. Samtidigt kommer han inte överens med institutets svarta akademiker som i Glenns ögon växt upp med en silversked i munnen och är lika främmande (fientligt inställda?) inför den svarta kulturen som Glenn vuxit upp i som hans vita kollegor. Glenn beskriver bl a en episod när han är på dejt med en svart akademiker och hon ber honom ta en omväg för att slippa åka igenom det nedgångna svarta området.
Glenn börjar romantisera sin egen förmåga att röra sig i två så vilt skilda miljöer; det svarta ghettot och den vita akademin. Han är en player, inte bara i ett rum utan i två. Det är svårt att hålla tungan rätt i munnen vid återberättelsen av det som följer men Glenns akademiska framgångar under 70- och 80-talet korrelerar med en serie otrohetsaffärer och ett allt svårare drogmissbruk. När Glenn anställs av Harvard efter MIT i början av 80-talet som den första svarta tenured ekonomiprofessorn i universitets historia drabbas han av paralyserande imposter syndrome och väljer att ersätta sin rigorösa ekonomiska karriär med en mjukare kravbild vid Harvards Kennedy School of Government.
Den lättare arbetsbördan innebär att Glenn börjar kultivera en persona som en konservativ publik intellektuell. Samtidigt som Glenn skriver polemiskt om destruktiva tendenser i svart kultur bidrar han till att reproducera dessa i sitt privatliv. Glenn får en son med en av sina älskarinnor, som han inte träffar förrän i slutet av 90-talet när en av hans döttrar råkar gå på samma college som honom och noterar den säregna stavningen på en killes efternamn; ”Loury”. Glenns drogmissbruk avancerar från kokain till crack och när hans publika person vuxit sig som störst, och han är aktuell för en position i Ronald Reagans administration, faller han som tyngst efter att ett gräl med en ”flickvän” slutar med att Glenn blir anklagad för övergrepp och offentligt avklädd i pressen. Anklagelsen dras senare tillbaka men skadan är gjord. Under hela den här perioden står Glenns andra fru Linda helgonliknande vid hans sida. Paret förblir gifta tom Lindas bortgång 2011.
Efter decennier med otrohet och successivt svårare drogmissbruk finner sig Glenn på ett behandlingshem. Han lämnar hemmet som pånyttfödd kristen och Glenns 90-tal definieras mer av interna konflikter med tidigare konservativa vänner än med demonerna som förföljt honom sedan barnsben. Glenn bryr sig om utvecklingen för den svarta delen av den amerikanska befolkningen men under 90-talet publiceras tre böcker som för Glenn indikerar att den konservativa rörelsen inte delar hans patos. Böckerna är The Bell Curve av Charles Murray och Richard Herrnstein, The End of Racism av Dinesh D’Souza och America in Black & White av Glenn och Lindas tidigare goda vänner Abigail och Stephan Thernstrom. Glenn upplever att den konservativa rörelsen har gett upp, accepterat att det finns ett inslag i varierande grad av biologisk och kulturell determinism som innebär att svarta är sannolika att förbli en etnisk underklass i USA. Konflikten med den konservativa rörelsen blir startskottet på en tid som politisk vilde.
Under 00-talet lierar sig Glenn i allt större utsträckning med den liberala vänstern han tidigare såg som sin fiende, och som i sin tur såg på Glenn som en Onkel Tom. För ett kort ögonblick blir han en Obama-demokrat innan han i samband med populariseringen av narrativ som The New Jim Crow och rörelsen Black Lives Matter återgår till rollen som rasmedveten konservativ, trött på ursäkter och uselt formulerade problem utan verklighetsbaserade lösningar.
Loury är inte rädd för den råa sanningen, han är medveten om att transparensen han anammar, långa utläggningar om sina sämsta sidor och tendenser, dragen av narcissism och megalomani, innebär att läsaren är mer sannolik att tro på berättelsen som presenteras. Jag lyssnar ganska regelbundet på Glenns podd The Glenn Show, där Glenn diskuterar aktuella händelser från ett politiskt, kulturellt perspektiv tillsammans med huvudsakligen andra akademiker. En av Glenns verkliga gåvor är förmågan att summera sin motståndares ståndpunkt på ett sätt som motståndaren skulle vara nöjd med. Glenn anammar med andra ord inga ”strawmens”, dessa saknas även i boken. Han är reflekterande och nykter i hur han beskriver omständigheterna för allt som han varit med om, felen han begått, och författar en fascinerande och fängslande berättelse till synes i ett försök att komma underfund med vem han är, har varit och fortfarande kan bli.
Glenn växer upp i den sämre delen av Chicago, är duktig i skolan men lider av inre demoner som kommer definiera hans brokiga väg till både relationsmässiga och akademiska framgångar och misslyckanden. Efter att ha blivit pappa kort efter high school kombinerar Glenn ett par år av enklare jobb med collegeförberedande kvällsstudier på den lokala skolan. Därefter accepteras han till Northwestern där han tar för sig, gör sig ett namn och finner flera mentorer - däribland Jonathan Hughes som ständigt påminner den kvantitativt begåvade Glenn (hans degree är i matematik) att ekonomi är mer än bara ekvationer. Glenn beskrivs som ett underbarn och efter studierna vid Northwestern erbjuds han att doktorera i ekonomi vid MIT under en handfull framtida nobelpristagare. Glenn är inkvoterad pga sin etnicitet men hans nästan uteslutande judiska professorer skojar med honom om ”att han är så begåvad att han skulle ha accepterats till programmet även om han var judisk.”
Sedan Glenn var ung har han velat vara en ”player”, en person av betydelse oavsett sammanhanget han finner sig i. Vid MIT vandrar han omkring with a chip on his shoulder. Han känner sig malplacerad bland de andra doktoranderna som har en helt annan referensram än han själv, en förfinad smak som han tillskriver deras socio-ekonomiska härkomst. Samtidigt kommer han inte överens med institutets svarta akademiker som i Glenns ögon växt upp med en silversked i munnen och är lika främmande (fientligt inställda?) inför den svarta kulturen som Glenn vuxit upp i som hans vita kollegor. Glenn beskriver bl a en episod när han är på dejt med en svart akademiker och hon ber honom ta en omväg för att slippa åka igenom det nedgångna svarta området.
Glenn börjar romantisera sin egen förmåga att röra sig i två så vilt skilda miljöer; det svarta ghettot och den vita akademin. Han är en player, inte bara i ett rum utan i två. Det är svårt att hålla tungan rätt i munnen vid återberättelsen av det som följer men Glenns akademiska framgångar under 70- och 80-talet korrelerar med en serie otrohetsaffärer och ett allt svårare drogmissbruk. När Glenn anställs av Harvard efter MIT i början av 80-talet som den första svarta tenured ekonomiprofessorn i universitets historia drabbas han av paralyserande imposter syndrome och väljer att ersätta sin rigorösa ekonomiska karriär med en mjukare kravbild vid Harvards Kennedy School of Government.
Den lättare arbetsbördan innebär att Glenn börjar kultivera en persona som en konservativ publik intellektuell. Samtidigt som Glenn skriver polemiskt om destruktiva tendenser i svart kultur bidrar han till att reproducera dessa i sitt privatliv. Glenn får en son med en av sina älskarinnor, som han inte träffar förrän i slutet av 90-talet när en av hans döttrar råkar gå på samma college som honom och noterar den säregna stavningen på en killes efternamn; ”Loury”. Glenns drogmissbruk avancerar från kokain till crack och när hans publika person vuxit sig som störst, och han är aktuell för en position i Ronald Reagans administration, faller han som tyngst efter att ett gräl med en ”flickvän” slutar med att Glenn blir anklagad för övergrepp och offentligt avklädd i pressen. Anklagelsen dras senare tillbaka men skadan är gjord. Under hela den här perioden står Glenns andra fru Linda helgonliknande vid hans sida. Paret förblir gifta tom Lindas bortgång 2011.
Efter decennier med otrohet och successivt svårare drogmissbruk finner sig Glenn på ett behandlingshem. Han lämnar hemmet som pånyttfödd kristen och Glenns 90-tal definieras mer av interna konflikter med tidigare konservativa vänner än med demonerna som förföljt honom sedan barnsben. Glenn bryr sig om utvecklingen för den svarta delen av den amerikanska befolkningen men under 90-talet publiceras tre böcker som för Glenn indikerar att den konservativa rörelsen inte delar hans patos. Böckerna är The Bell Curve av Charles Murray och Richard Herrnstein, The End of Racism av Dinesh D’Souza och America in Black & White av Glenn och Lindas tidigare goda vänner Abigail och Stephan Thernstrom. Glenn upplever att den konservativa rörelsen har gett upp, accepterat att det finns ett inslag i varierande grad av biologisk och kulturell determinism som innebär att svarta är sannolika att förbli en etnisk underklass i USA. Konflikten med den konservativa rörelsen blir startskottet på en tid som politisk vilde.
Under 00-talet lierar sig Glenn i allt större utsträckning med den liberala vänstern han tidigare såg som sin fiende, och som i sin tur såg på Glenn som en Onkel Tom. För ett kort ögonblick blir han en Obama-demokrat innan han i samband med populariseringen av narrativ som The New Jim Crow och rörelsen Black Lives Matter återgår till rollen som rasmedveten konservativ, trött på ursäkter och uselt formulerade problem utan verklighetsbaserade lösningar.
Loury är inte rädd för den råa sanningen, han är medveten om att transparensen han anammar, långa utläggningar om sina sämsta sidor och tendenser, dragen av narcissism och megalomani, innebär att läsaren är mer sannolik att tro på berättelsen som presenteras. Jag lyssnar ganska regelbundet på Glenns podd The Glenn Show, där Glenn diskuterar aktuella händelser från ett politiskt, kulturellt perspektiv tillsammans med huvudsakligen andra akademiker. En av Glenns verkliga gåvor är förmågan att summera sin motståndares ståndpunkt på ett sätt som motståndaren skulle vara nöjd med. Glenn anammar med andra ord inga ”strawmens”, dessa saknas även i boken. Han är reflekterande och nykter i hur han beskriver omständigheterna för allt som han varit med om, felen han begått, och författar en fascinerande och fängslande berättelse till synes i ett försök att komma underfund med vem han är, har varit och fortfarande kan bli.
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