Thomas Sowell (born 1930) is a writer and economist and a prominent libertarian. He was born in North Carolina. Sowell graduated in 1948 from Stuyvesant High School in New York City, and holds an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College, an A.M. in Economics from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago, known for its Chicago school of economics. Sowell has taught at prominent American universities including Cornell University and UCLA, and since 1980 has been a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, where he holds the fellowship named after Rose and Milton Friedman.

Besides scholarly writing, Sowell has written books, articles and syndicated columns for a general audience, in such publications as Forbes Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and major newspapers. Sowell primarily writes on economic subjects, in which he generally advocates a laissez-faire free market approach to capitalism. Sowell also writes on racial topics, and is a critic of affirmative action, which has made him a controversial figure.

Books

• A Conflict of Visions
• Affirmative Action Around the World
• Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy
• The Vision of the Anointed

External links

• Thomas Sowell's home page (http://www.tsowell.com/)
• Column archive at Townhall.com (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/archive.shtml)