Maverick

My review of Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell by Jason L. Riley (New York, NY: Basic Books. 2021. 291 pp. $30. Hardcover.) will appear in an upcoming issue of Christian Education Journal.

A legacy of ideas generates generational impact. For a long time, I have wondered if my own ideas would be lost to the present but unearthed one hundred years from now. “There will be good people carrying on the fight after we are gone” (248), says Thomas Sowell. His response reminds me that my work, your work, anyone’s work could be recognized and revered long into the future. Adherence to “true Truth,” Francis Schaeffer’s phrase, based on permanent, eternal connections to God’s coherent universal order will always find traction in the world of ideas. If there is anyone whose ideas have taken root in the soil of the next generation, it is Thomas Sowell. Over thirty books, over forty years of weekly writings, and hundreds of videos found everywhere on YouTube has fostered decades of influence and created a Mount Everest of research summitted by millions. Jason Riley, himself a prolific writer, has done the academic world a service by reviewing the lifetime impact of Thomas Sowell in Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell.

Maverick should be read by all faculty in every department throughout their current institution. Every conceivable academic circle whether in the sciences or the humanities needs such an exposure to intellectual history and ideas that Maverick provides. Not only does Riley give an exceptional review of Sowell’s life and thought, but he also shows how the Hoover Institute fellow establishes the premises from which all academics should base their thinking. In fact, it should be argued that every course begin with a philosophy of education, knowledge, hermeneutics, and apologetics. As Riley assesses,

“Viewed in its totality, his scholarship showcases a willingness to grapple with some of our most enduring philosophical questions: how knowledge is developed, how justice and injustice are defined, how basic conceptions of human nature differ and have led to contrasting political theories going back more than two centuries” (124-25).

Not only would it be impossible to review every salient detail mined from the wealth of Sowell’s biography, but it would also take the lifetime of multiple scholars to adequately unearth the riches of Sowell’s ideas. But by itself, Maverick could set the stage for regenerative thinking on behalf of “true Truth” across the academe.

The fullness of Sowell’s life – at this writing he is 92 – can only be expressed by the essence of the man, an invaluable service that Riley provides. The introduction to Maverick frames his subject. Here we find not only the process of excising Sowell’s life and work, but we discover the linchpin arguments “challenging liberal orthodoxies” (12). A person’s intellectual shaping is often left out of curricula vitae but should be a necessary component of any academic review (chapters 1-2). Faculty should rehearse for everyone who and what has most formulated their thinking to provide academic transparency. Sowell’s traverse through higher education (chapter 3) gives experiential understanding of institutional academic processes that need review. Sowell’s castigation of elite university administration and faculty expose “the most intolerant places you can be these days” (94). A review of Sowell’s thinking and writing (chapters 4-6) is the necessary centerpiece of the man’s person. Because Sowell has stood athwart progressivist assumptions in the academe showing the “assumptions behind conflicting views” (156), attacks on his work have been ad hominem at best (i.e., 219-21), but in large part, ignored: public intellectuals have been unable to respond to his arguments, so they don’t. Within these pages (156-66) Sowell’s explanation of “constrained” and “unconstrained” visions is not to be missed, “What drives our ideological disputes about the nature of reason, freedom, equality, justice, and power” (157). Riley’s distillation of Sowell’s thought on “Civil Rights and Wrongs” (Chapter 7) subverts the shallow arguments made of the supposed causes of racial discrimination. Here again Sowell’s “constrained” and “unconstrained” methodology maintains that “what matters most” are “facts and evidence” to support a theory (180); or, as the subtitle to one of Sowell’s many books asks, is the concern over civil rights “rhetoric or reality?” In the important chapter “Culture Matters” (chapter 8) Sowell rejects “unproven assumptions” (197) about racial inequities but categorically maintains “discrimination and social inequality were part of the human condition and couldn’t definitely be ‘solved’” (195). Chapter 9 summarizes “Sowellian black conservatism” (241). Influences on Sowell and those Sowell influenced is summarized here as Riley deftly demonstrates how ignoring a person’s ideas is discriminating against the person who holds these ideas. In Sowell’s own words, “The most brilliant thinkers typically grasp only part of the truth, and a fuller understanding comes only after a clash of ideas with others” (242). In this reviewer’s humble opinion, there is no other American public intellectual whose work has set the precedent for both understanding the history of ideas but the application of ideas in any culture.

As a matter of full disclosure, I have been reading Thomas Sowell’s books and columns and watching his videos for decades. Sowell’s thinking has been influential to my own intellectual processing for most of my teaching life. As Hebraic-Christian thinkers inside and outside the academe know, it is important to weave definitive doctrinal thinking through an explanation of Sowell’s thought processes. Essential to biblical understanding is the origin of ideas, acknowledging that The Personal Eternal Triune Creator of all things has set the stage for human understanding of everything. The matter of being honest about the origin of one’s assumptions is imperative in scholarship and teaching; a matter essential to understanding Sowell’s work. Following closely is the imperative that human thinking is both finite and fallen, our abilities tainted by sin. Any kind of regenerative solutions would be best seen through the lens of Scriptural wisdom books noting that all endeavors, humanly speaking, are what Sowell would call “tradeoffs” (a word used repeatedly throughout Maverick). Sowell’s examination of “constrained” and “unconstrained” visions is woven through The Bible. In Hebraic-Christian terms how we view human nature will set the stage for how we view social ills. We can, on the one hand, advocate for perfectibility expecting a utopian outcome (Sowell’s “unconstrained” explanation). Or, on the other hand, we can recognize the human tension between dignity and depravity “constraining” how we address life’s questions. Issues from slavery to reparations for slavery to social justice to racial preferences – and so much more – is examined by the black scholar, Thomas Sowell. And Sowell upends the current cultural narratives on these and other topics, not neatly compartmentalized into a “conservative” label. Sowell is concerned with assumptions, evidence, data analysis, and giving all sides a fair hearing, a need for viewpoint diversity which is supposed to be the hallmark of university thinking. Ultimately, Sowell’s concern should be the concern for all citizens of whatever country everywhere, “The most basic question in not what is best but who shall decide what is best” (emphasis his, 132). Answering the question, “Who says?” is at the heart of every concern; the undergirding and overarching conception throughout life is one of authority. Christians and non-Christians everywhere need to read Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell. The book is an introduction to a man and his ideas which are central to how we think and teach. Jason Riley’s work should be in the hands of every professor and student – no matter their discipline – who desires to be both broadminded and evenhanded in their discovery of “true Truth.”

Mark Eckel is President of the Comenius Institute, Indianapolis, IN and Professor of Leadership, Education and Discipleship, Capital Seminary and Graduate School, Lancaster, PA. He is also a Senior Associate Faculty member at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). He teaches and speaks for other institutions and groups, writing weekly at warpandwoof.org and here at MarkEckel.com. Visit The Comenius Institute YouTube channel (here).