Thomas Sowell's Personal Odyssey

One wouldn't normally expect a purely chronological autobiography of an economist, written in plain prose and including only selected vignettes, to be particularly interesting, but A Personal Odyssey i. I kept wanting to return to the book throughout the week to learn more of Thomas Sowell's intriguing story and character. I picked up the book because I have read several of his nonfiction books and have found his ideas innovating and his quest for the truth absent political agendas refreshing.

I knew very little of Thomas Sowell's life, except that he is known as a "conservative" African-American intellectual and that he managed to secure his education and several publications prior to affirmative action, a policy he believes has injured rather than helped African-Americans in the long-term. I was surprised to discover that his education got off to a rocky start, that he initially dropped out of high school, and that he was not exactly an A student. I was also surprised to learn that this free market economist was once a devout Marxist.

Sowell was, however, determined to obtain a real education, and at length he did, without compromising his principles or allowing himself to be used. He went on to teach in several colleges, and it is remarkable that he succeeded in the world of academia despite his uncompromising nature, his constant bucking of the educational system, his repeat fights with stonewalling bureaucracies, his insistence on maintaining standards despite the constant pressure to dilute them, and his absolute refusal to play (or encourage others to play) black victim to the liberal white messiahs. Sowell also worked in the business world, and he says the presumably "cutthroat" corporate world was nothing compared to the duplicity and underhandedness he experienced in academia and the research world.

A Personal Odyssey is perhaps most interesting for its inside look at the ills that plagued higher education in the 60's and early 70's, at the way real education was (and still is) too often sacrificed for politics and ideology. As bleak as that picture is, it is heartwarming to read the story of a man who stood against that tide and insisted on demanding the best intellectual work of his students, whether white or black, no matter how many professorates it might cost him. It is interesting how free of personality his academic work is, given how large his personality looms in this autobiography: he seems a character full of arrogance, stubbornness, courage, principle, and wit.