Civil Rights

Rhetoric or Reality?

By: Thomas Sowell

Narrated by: James Bundy

Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Thomas Sowell takes a tough, factual look at whether the civil rights movement has lived up to its hopes or its rhetoric. In the decades since the historic Supreme Court decision on desegregation, who has gained and who has lost? Which of the assumptions behind the civil rights revolution have stood the test of time, and which have proven to be mistaken or even catastrophic to those who were supposed to be helped?

Armed with vast statistical research, Sowell deftly refutes the key assumptions on which the civil rights movement was erected - "that discrimination leads to poverty and other adverse social consequences and...that adverse statistical disparities imply discrimination." He surgically probes the fundamental racial issues, including affirmative action and busing, as well as women's issues, including the Equal Rights Amendment.

Rights and wrongs: listen to more of our titles about the civil rights movement.

©1984 Thomas Sowell (P)1988 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"A brutally frank, perceptive, and important contribution to the national debate over the means to achieve equality and social justice for minorities and women." (New York Times)

A Good Read

Although not actually what I expected, it was good in formation, easily could be applied today.

Brilliant

A brilliant argument backed up with facts rather than emotion, and simply laid out out so anyone can follow and understand. Well done.

Incredibly informative!!

This is a fantastic book and to think that it was written in 1984. it could have been written today, it's just gotten worse....

Compelling Explanation About Race

This book explains my own personal experience in dealing with racial issues. Make no mistake about it, our government, at least in New York, applies a quota system, at least as it applies to public employment of blacks. Working for a transit agency, nearly half of our employees were black. More than three quarters of employees terminated were black and this was almost always for the same cause. The union would not contest management actions. For the occasional discrimination complaint, I would appear with a spreadsheet documenting the racial composition of our workforce that exceeded the percentage of the local population. Having exceeded our quota, we never had a problem. Our quota based on sex showed chronic underrepresentation of women, but we never had a complaint there.

Dr. Sowell has become something of a hero for me as I have consumed his work. I am grateful for both his scholarship and his courage. I agree that the best hope for the liberal advancement of people is to encourage cultures of success. This should be the social responsibility of us all. After all, Dr. King told us that his grandchildren WOULD be judged, as will all of us, including those who play the politics of race.

As current now as when written

A little heavy on statistics at the start but well worth the listen. Great explanation of how those who were supposed to benefit often do not. The rule of unexpected consequences applies.

Truth instead of emotion

Understanding true root cause and finding real solutions is the only way we will heal the fabricated divisions in this country and work to marginalize true racism and prejudice. This book helps in this effort.

Still applies to today.

The discussion that Mr. Sowell presented in this book is still very applicable to today just as it was when it was written.

Excellent as Always.

Thomas Sowell is the best. He is so good at dispelling notions most of us take as axiomatic with ease.
The narrator on this wasn't the best.

A prophecy!

honestly the words that Thomas wrote in 1984 could not have been any more true than than they are today in. the policies and ideology that he warned us about back then had become a foothold in today's society that is tearing the moral fabric apart in America. it's a shame that this book wasn't read by more people back then so that we may have spared ourselves the travesties that we do see still today.

Facts for today

Thomas Sowell once again cuts through the assumptions and myths with cold, hard facts. As we, many times, see things through our modern, American bubble, most of the time, our situations have existed before in many other cultures.