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If Thomas Sowell writes a book, I get it. I find his writings invariably insightful and helpful. Paul Johnson calls him “the most original and interesting philosopher at work in America.” Whether it’s economics, affirmative action, race, social justice, or other topics, Sowell’s writing is clear and often convincing.

His new book just came out: Intellectuals and Society. Here is the publisher’s description:

This is a clear-eyed critique about (but not for) intellectuals that explores their impact on public opinion, policy and society at large. This is a study of how intellectuals as a class affect modern societies by shaping the climate of opinion in which official policies develop, on issues ranging from economics to law to war and peace. The thesis of Intellectuals and Society is that the influence of intellectuals is not only greater than in previous eras, but also takes a very different form from that envisioned by those like Machiavelli and others who have wanted to directly influence rulers. It has not been by shaping the opinions or directing the actions of the holders of power that modern intellectuals have most influenced the course of events, but by shaping public opinion in ways that affect the actions of power holders in democratic societies, whether or not those power holders accept the general vision or the particular policies favored by intellectuals. Even government leaders with disdain or contempt for intellectuals have had to bend to the climate of opinion shaped by those intellectuals. Intellectuals and Society not only examines the track record of intellectuals in the things they have advocated but also analyzes the incentives and constraints under which their views and visions have emerged. One of the most surprising aspects of this study is how often intellectuals have been proved not only wrong but grossly and disastrously wrong in their prescriptions for the ills of society—and how little their views have changed in response to empirical evidence of the disasters entailed by those views.

Here’s the Table of Contents:

  1. Intellect and Intellectuals
  2. Knowledge and Notions
  3. Intellectuals and Economics
  4. Intellectuals and Social Visions
  5. Optional Reality in the Media and Academia
  6. Intellectuals and the Law
  7. Intellectuals and War
  8. Intellectuals and War: Repeating History
  9. Intellectuals and Society

Below is a recent video interview of Sowell by Peter Robinson for the online program Uncommon Knowledge:

Part 1: Thomas Sowell introduces his new book, Intellectuals and Society, and expounds on what he calls “the fatal misstep of intellectuals.”

Part 2: Thomas Sowell offers examples of why intellectuals are so often wrong about economics.

Part 3: What is the vision to which contemporary intellectuals subscribe? Thomas Sowell responds.

Part 4: Thomas Sowell reasons that intellectuals certainly can renounce war, “and that does not stop your neighbor from building up the biggest army in the world and coming in and killing you.”

Part 5: “Thomas Sowell explains how the demand for public intellectuals is largely manufactured by the public intellectuals themselves.”

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