What do you think?
Rate this book
Is Reality Optional? And Other Essays
Sowell challenges all the assumptions of contemporary liberalism on issues ranging from the economy to race to education in this collection of controversial essays, and captures his thoughts on politics, race, and common sense with a section at the end for thought-provoking quotes.
192 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1993
198 people are currently reading
624 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Sowell
88 books5,553 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
August 21, 2022
This is a collection of Thomas Sowell’s essays from the 1980s and early 90s. The book was published in 1993. So, reading it in 2022, nearly 30 years later, one might think that it is outdated. The fact is, many of the things he writes about are still with us: political correctness, affirmative-action, quotas, multiculturalism, a failing education system, an unprincipled Supreme Court. It’s all there in 1993 just as it is here now.
November 8, 2023
So good! It’s sad how relevant it still is though.
January 31, 2025
Dude's smart.
Read
November 24, 2020“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.” – F.A. Hayek
From economist and cultural critic Thomas Sowell come this amusingly-titled collection of essays, loosely gathered under the theme of pointing out inconvenient truths. The title caught my eye because society seems to become more of an obscene cartoon, a farce on the stage, with every passing year. The essays are presumably drawn from columns Sowell contributed to newspapers over the years, spanning the seventies through the nineties, on a spectrum of topics: sex ed, crime & punishment, race, sex, and the virtues of map projections. The title essay opens the book, as Sowell points to various movements within the US which, however well-intentioned in their motives, are unrealistic in their aims — and irresponsible, as their actions affect not only them, but the public interest. Also within the collection are sketches, intended as humor, with varying results.
Sowell is first and foremost an economist; I first encountered him via Basic Economics, and he uses economic principles to inform his critiques of society and culture, particularly the observation that there are no solutions, only trade-offs. this not only means every action taken by a government, business, or person will have negative consequences, it means we usually have to weigh things in the balance. Do we want safety? How much safety? How many inconveniences are we willing to endure, how much are we willing to pay? No two households come to the same balance, and will chose different options depending on how how much risk they’re willing to court, and how much money they’re willing to pay. The balancing act can be applied to anything, and it often appears in the essays — applied in his evaluation of a environmental movement, and its useless denunciation of both fossil fuels and the only meaningful alternative, nuclear energy. (Solar & wind are not as expensive as they once were, but they’re not serious options for carrying the base load of any modern society.)
There is no point trying to appease the anointed by giving in on some particular issue they raise, because that only shifts the fight to some other issue. The basic underlying problem is that they do not live in the grubby world of trade-offs with the rest of us. They live in the loftier realms of their own minds where “solutions” prevail.
Sowell’s attitude is one of pragmatism and prudence: it if ain’t broke, don’t fix it. People may experiment on themselves at their leisure, but trying on new social theories every other year is hubristic and irresponsible. Sowell points to the frequent changes in educational theory, in crime mitigation, etc and to their repeated failures. Too often, he says, we replace what works with what sounds good. This is the third Sowell work I’ve read, and I find him of such great interest that I hope to continue exploring his considerable output as time goes on. Sowell’s perspective is especially powerful when writing on matters of civil rights and race, because he lived through the death of Jim Crow, the arrival of affirmative action, and so on. As a black intellectual himself, he encountered and triumphed over both racism and ideologies which deny minorities real agency — instead insisting, ever so patronizingly, that they are the state’s wards who need special hand-holding. (I’ve come to realize in the last ten years that the government acts like some demented jailer in regards to the working class….raising barrier after barrier to prevent people from prospering, like imposing cosmetology licensure requirements on hair-braiders, and then expecting worship when it offers half-cocked solutions to the problems of its own making — like helping the Saudis bomb Yemen, then offering aid to the survivors. )
Unfortunately, although these essays date from the seventies, only their statistics are dated. Foolhardiness of past decades has been surpassed by even more outrageous social movements and proposals today today, like the ‘green new deal’, a product so divorced from reality when its details are considered that only a sheltered politician could propose it, and certain social movements in which mental issues are attempted to be ‘fixed’ by surgeries and chemical bombardment. To believe that sex is malleable is to believe that reality itself has no substance, that the world can be made to confirm to our will. It would be nice if we could transform the world that easily, but reality is obdurant. Evidenced by Sowell’s writings, this is not a new problem with the human race, though it’s certainly a greater issue now than ever before. At least the ancients knew that if one appealed to the gods to give them what they wanted, great sacrifice would be necessary. We seem to think it can happen with the simple passing of legislation, and the liberal application of other people’s money.
From economist and cultural critic Thomas Sowell come this amusingly-titled collection of essays, loosely gathered under the theme of pointing out inconvenient truths. The title caught my eye because society seems to become more of an obscene cartoon, a farce on the stage, with every passing year. The essays are presumably drawn from columns Sowell contributed to newspapers over the years, spanning the seventies through the nineties, on a spectrum of topics: sex ed, crime & punishment, race, sex, and the virtues of map projections. The title essay opens the book, as Sowell points to various movements within the US which, however well-intentioned in their motives, are unrealistic in their aims — and irresponsible, as their actions affect not only them, but the public interest. Also within the collection are sketches, intended as humor, with varying results.
Sowell is first and foremost an economist; I first encountered him via Basic Economics, and he uses economic principles to inform his critiques of society and culture, particularly the observation that there are no solutions, only trade-offs. this not only means every action taken by a government, business, or person will have negative consequences, it means we usually have to weigh things in the balance. Do we want safety? How much safety? How many inconveniences are we willing to endure, how much are we willing to pay? No two households come to the same balance, and will chose different options depending on how how much risk they’re willing to court, and how much money they’re willing to pay. The balancing act can be applied to anything, and it often appears in the essays — applied in his evaluation of a environmental movement, and its useless denunciation of both fossil fuels and the only meaningful alternative, nuclear energy. (Solar & wind are not as expensive as they once were, but they’re not serious options for carrying the base load of any modern society.)
There is no point trying to appease the anointed by giving in on some particular issue they raise, because that only shifts the fight to some other issue. The basic underlying problem is that they do not live in the grubby world of trade-offs with the rest of us. They live in the loftier realms of their own minds where “solutions” prevail.
Sowell’s attitude is one of pragmatism and prudence: it if ain’t broke, don’t fix it. People may experiment on themselves at their leisure, but trying on new social theories every other year is hubristic and irresponsible. Sowell points to the frequent changes in educational theory, in crime mitigation, etc and to their repeated failures. Too often, he says, we replace what works with what sounds good. This is the third Sowell work I’ve read, and I find him of such great interest that I hope to continue exploring his considerable output as time goes on. Sowell’s perspective is especially powerful when writing on matters of civil rights and race, because he lived through the death of Jim Crow, the arrival of affirmative action, and so on. As a black intellectual himself, he encountered and triumphed over both racism and ideologies which deny minorities real agency — instead insisting, ever so patronizingly, that they are the state’s wards who need special hand-holding. (I’ve come to realize in the last ten years that the government acts like some demented jailer in regards to the working class….raising barrier after barrier to prevent people from prospering, like imposing cosmetology licensure requirements on hair-braiders, and then expecting worship when it offers half-cocked solutions to the problems of its own making — like helping the Saudis bomb Yemen, then offering aid to the survivors. )
Unfortunately, although these essays date from the seventies, only their statistics are dated. Foolhardiness of past decades has been surpassed by even more outrageous social movements and proposals today today, like the ‘green new deal’, a product so divorced from reality when its details are considered that only a sheltered politician could propose it, and certain social movements in which mental issues are attempted to be ‘fixed’ by surgeries and chemical bombardment. To believe that sex is malleable is to believe that reality itself has no substance, that the world can be made to confirm to our will. It would be nice if we could transform the world that easily, but reality is obdurant. Evidenced by Sowell’s writings, this is not a new problem with the human race, though it’s certainly a greater issue now than ever before. At least the ancients knew that if one appealed to the gods to give them what they wanted, great sacrifice would be necessary. We seem to think it can happen with the simple passing of legislation, and the liberal application of other people’s money.
May 13, 2023
This collection of essays feels like a Time Capsule of 80’s TV conservatism. Read the “Random Thoughts” chapter at the end— you’ll get the gist of the best of it. Sowell is quite bad at writing on subjects that haven’t affected him personally. He complains but doesn’t give any reasons to substantiate scepticism or dislike of subjects such as climate change, sex Ed, or gay marriage.
One interesting idea— Sowell’s core belief that the premise of economics is scarcity: “there is no free lunch, no “solutions” but only trade-offs.” He cannot conceive of a reality without trade-offs hence all political attempts to alleviate societal financial hardships are attacked as futile grandiose delusions. Sowell claims that politics and economics are fundamentally antagonistic to each other. Sadly, Sowell makes no real attempt to substantiate his economics claims. Individual meritocratic self-discipline is presented as the singular saving balm to all societal ills and personal aspirations. All social engineering and group ideology is bad.
“Just as super-patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, super-identity is the last refuge of the hustler. Some make a career out of it and others try to escape blame for their own incompetence.”
One interesting idea— Sowell’s core belief that the premise of economics is scarcity: “there is no free lunch, no “solutions” but only trade-offs.” He cannot conceive of a reality without trade-offs hence all political attempts to alleviate societal financial hardships are attacked as futile grandiose delusions. Sowell claims that politics and economics are fundamentally antagonistic to each other. Sadly, Sowell makes no real attempt to substantiate his economics claims. Individual meritocratic self-discipline is presented as the singular saving balm to all societal ills and personal aspirations. All social engineering and group ideology is bad.
“Just as super-patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, super-identity is the last refuge of the hustler. Some make a career out of it and others try to escape blame for their own incompetence.”
February 21, 2024
A welcome counterpoint
This collection of short essays, in many instances, cuts through BS succinctly, and while most of my contemporaries will not find it palatable, for that reason, it deserves our attention. All Sowell expects of his readers is that they have some factual basis for their thoughts and deeds and that we treat each other honestly on that basis. This can indeed be big medicine for baby boomers such as myself swept up in the tidal forces of the political economy. This does not mean that I accept his thinking wholesale, only that it does highlight glaring inconsistencies in what is said and done.
This collection of short essays, in many instances, cuts through BS succinctly, and while most of my contemporaries will not find it palatable, for that reason, it deserves our attention. All Sowell expects of his readers is that they have some factual basis for their thoughts and deeds and that we treat each other honestly on that basis. This can indeed be big medicine for baby boomers such as myself swept up in the tidal forces of the political economy. This does not mean that I accept his thinking wholesale, only that it does highlight glaring inconsistencies in what is said and done.
August 12, 2018
Thomas Sowell is undeniably bright but he tends to be (at least in this book) heavy on criticism and light on solutions aside from democracy and capitalism - which are not solutions but that is another matter.
As an aside, it is interesting to read these old columns and to realize how much more dire the situations he describes are today. It is enlightening (and disheartening) to see how the culture wars that were being fought so many years ago are still raging on in 2018.
As an aside, it is interesting to read these old columns and to realize how much more dire the situations he describes are today. It is enlightening (and disheartening) to see how the culture wars that were being fought so many years ago are still raging on in 2018.
Read
May 8, 2022Old Articles, but still valid
This book is a collection of columns Sowell wrote decades ago. Obviously, that means his arguments and examples are also decades old. It does not mean, however, that they are invalid. Thomas Sowell is a brilliant national treasure. This collection of essays demonstrates why.
This book is a collection of columns Sowell wrote decades ago. Obviously, that means his arguments and examples are also decades old. It does not mean, however, that they are invalid. Thomas Sowell is a brilliant national treasure. This collection of essays demonstrates why.
November 16, 2016
The divergent of intellectuals and influx of hysterical ideas. The social and draconian approach of the anointed. Thomas Sowell is a man alone with the foresight of what make sense in the free market. No solutions but trade-offs.
February 12, 2021
Excellent read
Short easy chapters. Great ideas simply put. Puts to shame the nonsense of the left. The sections make it simple to find topics in which one might be interested. I really enjoyed it
Short easy chapters. Great ideas simply put. Puts to shame the nonsense of the left. The sections make it simple to find topics in which one might be interested. I really enjoyed it
November 3, 2024
unfortunately, i do not agree with some of the things in this collection of essays, i did not read them fully, but once i saw the one about china and birth control, i really wanted to drop this book.
it's ok to understand that you can't sustain a growing population economically, and take measures so that fewer get to live in poverty in the future...how can a person who, in theory, understands so much come and blame that?! measures like that can also help curb the rate at which we are depleting our planet's resources...we don't just live right now, and just for ourselves, we have a responsibility to think and care for our future generations. blaming china's child policy from the past is a sign of incredible selfishness. i do not agree with this book, i can't. we only have one planet, and the future generations who get it matter, resources are not infinite, even if maybe the author here assumes they magically come from somewhere...he is not the one to talk to me about the economy then, if he does not get what happened in china with the child policy. i can come and ask "is reality optional?" when you just want to see things in a specific way...resources are finite, and nobody wants or should want for their people to live in poverty...what a limited perspective, the one from that essay. our purpose in life is not to just multiply, and our quality of living matters, every leader should understand this, and care about their people's quality of living, and have some long-term perspective, not just the right here and right now.
i draw a hard line at china's child policy, i believe i understand the mechanism behind that decision, and i agree with it, not the essay, if population would have kept growing at the rate at which it was growing when the decision was made, many, many, many people would have suffered from poverty in the future, it was most likely not an easy decision, but a necessary one.
DNF.
for context, china's one child policy started 1980, and it ended in 2016.
it's ok to understand that you can't sustain a growing population economically, and take measures so that fewer get to live in poverty in the future...how can a person who, in theory, understands so much come and blame that?! measures like that can also help curb the rate at which we are depleting our planet's resources...we don't just live right now, and just for ourselves, we have a responsibility to think and care for our future generations. blaming china's child policy from the past is a sign of incredible selfishness. i do not agree with this book, i can't. we only have one planet, and the future generations who get it matter, resources are not infinite, even if maybe the author here assumes they magically come from somewhere...he is not the one to talk to me about the economy then, if he does not get what happened in china with the child policy. i can come and ask "is reality optional?" when you just want to see things in a specific way...resources are finite, and nobody wants or should want for their people to live in poverty...what a limited perspective, the one from that essay. our purpose in life is not to just multiply, and our quality of living matters, every leader should understand this, and care about their people's quality of living, and have some long-term perspective, not just the right here and right now.
i draw a hard line at china's child policy, i believe i understand the mechanism behind that decision, and i agree with it, not the essay, if population would have kept growing at the rate at which it was growing when the decision was made, many, many, many people would have suffered from poverty in the future, it was most likely not an easy decision, but a necessary one.
DNF.
for context, china's one child policy started 1980, and it ended in 2016.
September 20, 2024
I listened to this book on audiobook, and the single worst part of this format (and perhaps the book's format) is the lack of date for each essay. This makes understanding the context in which the essay is being written difficult to infer--especially for someone who was not alive when these essays were written.
Still, the wit and ability of Sowell to compress complex ideas into digestible bite-sized pieces is impressive, even if Sowell occasionally comes off as a stereotypical crabby old person with some of the essays. However, compared to Sowell's other books, this collection of essays lacked a unifying message and empirical edge that made Sowell's other books so powerful.
Still, the wit and ability of Sowell to compress complex ideas into digestible bite-sized pieces is impressive, even if Sowell occasionally comes off as a stereotypical crabby old person with some of the essays. However, compared to Sowell's other books, this collection of essays lacked a unifying message and empirical edge that made Sowell's other books so powerful.
May 24, 2023
Schnell zu hören kurze Essays zu verschiedenen gesellschaftspolitischen Themen.
Angenehm gelesen.
Wenn man andere Werke Sowells kennt wird man einiges wiederfinden, was auch schon besser ausgearbeitet in seinen Büchern vorkommt.
Als Kaleidoskop für Sowell - Neulinge gut geeignet, damit man einen schnellen Überblick über seine Positionen erlangt.
Angenehm gelesen.
Wenn man andere Werke Sowells kennt wird man einiges wiederfinden, was auch schon besser ausgearbeitet in seinen Büchern vorkommt.
Als Kaleidoskop für Sowell - Neulinge gut geeignet, damit man einen schnellen Überblick über seine Positionen erlangt.
August 15, 2021
I consider myself a Thomas Sowell fan. But, overall, didn’t think much of this collection of columns. Best column was one entitled “Media Bias” on page 78 regarding seen and unseen costs of public policy.
January 9, 2022
Clarity of thought
Sowell doesn’t just provide commentary; he teaches the reader how to think, which the educational system in this country has not done since we let Congress create the Department of Education.
Sowell doesn’t just provide commentary; he teaches the reader how to think, which the educational system in this country has not done since we let Congress create the Department of Education.
November 6, 2022
I find is kind of scary how relevant this 30 year old book is. It feels like Sowell is talking about today. IRO discusses a diverse set of economic topics and the interrelationship between them in a fascinating way. His thinking is clear, anologistic and compelling.
May 17, 2023
This book contains a number of Thomas Sowell’s bite-sized essays.
The content of these essays is still relevant today.
If you want to see examples of essays on a wide range of subjects, this book is useful.
If you like Thomas Sowell, this is a must read.
The content of these essays is still relevant today.
If you want to see examples of essays on a wide range of subjects, this book is useful.
If you like Thomas Sowell, this is a must read.
January 5, 2025
Sound wisdom
Anyone and everyone learns from reading Mr. Sowell. It's that simple. Just read him if you haven't already, and read more if you have. Even if you disagree with him, you will benefit.
Anyone and everyone learns from reading Mr. Sowell. It's that simple. Just read him if you haven't already, and read more if you have. Even if you disagree with him, you will benefit.
July 11, 2017
Another fantastic book by Sowell
September 11, 2022
Jeg har kun læst nogle af artiklerne. Det er greatest hits og overvejelser, afleveret til en avis. Det er ikke godt nok til, at jeg vil læse det.
January 18, 2024
As usual Thomas Sowell is very suscinct and lucid in observations about the world around us.
I especially loved the last chapter: Random Thoughts.
I especially loved the last chapter: Random Thoughts.
May 14, 2024
This was a fast read of some of Sowell's essays. Well worth the time.
June 11, 2024
Must read.
November 2, 2024
Very interesting, but being a collection of essays, each chapter was a totally different topic.
Funny quote
“The fact that I haven’t murdered an editor is proof that the death penalty deters”
Funny quote
“The fact that I haven’t murdered an editor is proof that the death penalty deters”
December 4, 2024
"Ideologies are fairytales for adults." - Thomas Sowell
March 5, 2025
This is such an important book. Same stupid problems 30 years ago and we did nothing about it.
May 30, 2025
The sort of book one would hope young people would read and ponder before considering college.
September 6, 2025
Leftist propaganda.
November 22, 2025
The brilliance, range and depth of Thomas Sowell's wisdom is only matched by his unparalleled humor. Leave no book of his unread!
December 2, 2021
a goldmine of truth simply explained
His short essays were full of wisdom gained from experience. The points Sowell makes reflects his constant listening and observing then drawing and intelligent conclusion. His essays while serious are expressed with humor. Very educational.
His short essays were full of wisdom gained from experience. The points Sowell makes reflects his constant listening and observing then drawing and intelligent conclusion. His essays while serious are expressed with humor. Very educational.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews