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In the collection's third essay, Sowell reviews the history of slavery. Contrary to popular impression, which blames Western society and white people as the culprits, Sowell argues that slavery was a universal institution accepted and embraced by nearly all human societies.
Thomas Sowell (/ s oʊ l / SOHL; born June 30, 1930) is an American economist, economic historian, social philosopher and political commentator. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] With widely published commentary and books—and as a guest on TV and radio—he is a well-known voice in the American conservative ...
The Quran assigns the same spiritual value to a slave as to a free man, [103] [104] and a believing slave is regarded as superior to a free pagan or idolator. [105] The manumission of slaves is regarded as a meritorious act in the Quran, and is recommended either as an act of charity or as expiation for sins.
Sowell's book has been published both with and without the subtitle "Ideological Origins of Political Struggles". Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate calls Sowell's explanation the best theory given to date. [2] In his book, Pinker refers to the "unconstrained vision" as the "utopian vision" and the "constrained vision" as the "tragic vision". [3]
Sowell makes three basic arguments. First, he examines the economic impact of slavery, in the United States, the West Indies, and elsewhere.He distinguishes rural slavery from urban slavery, and circumstances in which blacks so predominated that many economic tasks fell to them of necessity, from circumstances in which blacks were punished for initiative and the development of skills.
In a column for conservative publication The Independent Review, Gary M. Galles of religious college Pepperdine University stated that Sowell "thinks carefully and creatively through widely held premises and the narratives they support, bolstering his analysis with a vast array of evidence that offers insights for the intellectually curious".
Sowell argues that American thought is dominated by a "prevailing vision" which seals itself off from any empirical evidence that is inconsistent with that vision. The book challenges people Sowell refers to as " Teflon prophets," who predict that there will be future social, economic, or environmental problems in the absence of government ...
The scholar Thomas L. Haskell wrote in 1975 that Time on the Cross had two main themes: to revise the history of slavery and to support the use of the scientific method in history. [ 1 ] The book directly challenged the long-held conclusions that American slavery was unprofitable, a moribund institution, inefficient, and extremely harsh for the ...