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US Mall 1 - Knowledge And Decisions
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List Price: $26.00
Our Price: $19.00
Your Save: $ 7.00 ( 27% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Basic Books
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 302.3
EAN: 9780465037384
ISBN: 0465037380
Label: Basic Books
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 448
Publication Date: 1996-10-03
Publisher: Basic Books
Studio: Basic Books
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Decisions and trade-offs
Comment: Thomas Sowell - brilliant, blunt, relentlessly honest - is a great wrecker of "enlightened" platitudes, the ideas one finds in newsrooms and faculty lounges, or wherever the "deep thinkers" of the Left come to celebrate their own originality and superior wisdom. Using economics as a scalpal - or a wrecking bar - Sowell shows that much of the "60's Liberal" talk about what's wrong with America - the word "discrimination" is often heard - is little more than bad statistics. Even worse, the remedies Liberals propose - e.g. affirmative action, AFDC, etc. - are ineffective and unfair, or worse, by setting up perverse incentives, actually help create the "diseases" they pretend to cure. If Sowell were white, he would have been tagged as a "racist" long ago. But he's black and grew up poor and even had a brief flirtation with Marxism - before becoming what he has been for the last 50 years - the Left's worst nightmare, a tirelessly prolific "conservative" author whose genius is to make deep thinking seem like common sense.
"Knowledge and Decisions", a complex treatise of some 400 pages, is Sowell's least approachable book, but one that is certainly worth the effort of reading.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic analysis of the deicision-making of the Left.
Comment: Thomas Sowell blew my mind with this book. Excellent analysis brought in a very academic setting. The language is also easy to understand, so all of your friends could read a chapter and understand Sowell's point. As the author points out, this book discusses political policies and decision-making on a much broader scope. "Vision of the Anointed" is an earlier work, and focuses specifically on policies of the American Left. The reader may find that "Knowledge and Decisions" is complemented well by reading "Vision of the Anointed" first.
Customer Rating:
Summary: one of my top 10 all-time books
Comment: this book was well written and clearly thought out. A wonderful explanation of economic priciples in an interesting format
Customer Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking
Comment: I ordered this along with several other books, and was pleased to find it both well written, and offering some thought provoking insights into its subject matter. Well worth the read.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Pseudo-academic polemics
Comment: I can't fault a book for having an opinion. I can fault it for disguising a dogmatic political agenda as serious intellectual analysis. Some people may be deceived because the tone is so boring, they may think the discussion is dry, dispassionate and sincere. The major premise of the book, that knowledge has a cost, is uncontroversial. Sowell then elaborates his opinions, but the connection to the theme is frequently tenuous and seldom considers counterarguments (unless Sowell has a counter-counterargument neatly prepared.)
He does have a justification for every viewpoint, but many arguments are weak. On the whole, it reads as a compilation of his opinions, supporting the Republicans at every turn, without regard to his supposed premises.
If you're interested in an 800 page debate handbook rambling over every subject, (say you're Rush Limbaugh or are running for Congress), this book provides intelligent-sounding arguments. To anybody else, it shows the value of paid ideologues to trick the masses into thinking that the elite know something. They don't want you to slog through this intimidatingly tedious book, just to believe in it. There's no need.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Decisions and trade-offs
Comment: Thomas Sowell - brilliant, blunt, relentlessly honest - is a great wrecker of "enlightened" platitudes, the ideas one finds in newsrooms and faculty lounges, or wherever the "deep thinkers" of the Left come to celebrate their own originality and superior wisdom. Using economics as a scalpal - or a wrecking bar - Sowell shows that much of the "60's Liberal" talk about what's wrong with America - the word "discrimination" is often heard - is little more than bad statistics. Even worse, the remedies Liberals propose - e.g. affirmative action, AFDC, etc. - are ineffective and unfair, or worse, by setting up perverse incentives, actually help create the "diseases" they pretend to cure. If Sowell were white, he would have been tagged as a "racist" long ago. But he's black and grew up poor and even had a brief flirtation with Marxism - before becoming what he has been for the last 50 years - the Left's worst nightmare, a tirelessly prolific "conservative" author whose genius is to make deep thinking seem like common sense.
"Knowledge and Decisions", a complex treatise of some 400 pages, is Sowell's least approachable book, but one that is certainly worth the effort of reading.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic analysis of the deicision-making of the Left.
Comment: Thomas Sowell blew my mind with this book. Excellent analysis brought in a very academic setting. The language is also easy to understand, so all of your friends could read a chapter and understand Sowell's point. As the author points out, this book discusses political policies and decision-making on a much broader scope. "Vision of the Anointed" is an earlier work, and focuses specifically on policies of the American Left. The reader may find that "Knowledge and Decisions" is complemented well by reading "Vision of the Anointed" first.
Customer Rating:
Summary: one of my top 10 all-time books
Comment: this book was well written and clearly thought out. A wonderful explanation of economic priciples in an interesting format
Customer Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking
Comment: I ordered this along with several other books, and was pleased to find it both well written, and offering some thought provoking insights into its subject matter. Well worth the read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pseudo-academic polemics
Comment: I can't fault a book for having an opinion. I can fault it for disguising a dogmatic political agenda as serious intellectual analysis. Some people may be deceived because the tone is so boring, they may think the discussion is dry, dispassionate and sincere. The major premise of the book, that knowledge has a cost, is uncontroversial. Sowell then elaborates his opinions, but the connection to the theme is frequently tenuous and seldom considers counterarguments (unless Sowell has a counter-counterargument neatly prepared.)
He does have a justification for every viewpoint, but many arguments are weak. On the whole, it reads as a compilation of his opinions, supporting the Republicans at every turn, without regard to his supposed premises.
If you're interested in an 800 page debate handbook rambling over every subject, (say you're Rush Limbaugh or are running for Congress), this book provides intelligent-sounding arguments. To anybody else, it shows the value of paid ideologues to trick the masses into thinking that the elite know something. They don't want you to slog through this intimidatingly tedious book, just to believe in it. There's no need.
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