Ethnic America

By: Thomas Sowell

Narrated by: James Bundy

Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Thomas Sowell provides us with a useful and concise record tracing the history of nine ethnic groups: Irish, Germans, Jews, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans.

He offers perspective-building facts, such as the fact that there are more people of Irish ancestry in the United States than in Ireland and more Jews than in Israel. He explains each ethnic group's varied experiences in adapting to American society.

©1981 Basic Books, Inc. (P)1989 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[This] should be required reading for anyone interested in policy questions involving race and ethnicity." (New Republic)
"Ethnic America is at once useful as a concise history of major ethnic groups and significant as a quiet but powerful attack on liberal beliefs about minorities, racism, segregation, and affirmative action." (The New York Times Book Review)

excellent survey

very good review of how we all came to be here in the USA. realistic census information, somewhat dated, support the facts.

Good for history, otherwise out of date

This book is now 40 years old. Although the historical data is excellent for the most part, so much has changed in the field of cultural studies within the past 40 years as to make this book out of touch with current terminology, philosophy, and statistics.

Sowell is Amazing!

Thomas Sowell is one of the greatest economists of all time! He is consistent and he does his homework.

Understanding the ethnic tapestry of America

This is a fantastic book for understanding the histories of ethnic groups in America, and understanding how those histories tie into the history of America as a whole. This book isn’t political or decisive, but simply a record of complex histories of complex people.

I highly recommend this book (or any Thomas Sowell book) to anyone who wants to expand their understanding of America, and the world.

Fascinating insight into the fabric we call America

My only wish is that there was a Sowell "Book 2" with current information. Yet, the book did not disappoint . It gave me great insight into why some cultures are the way they are still today - with slight differences. I enjoyed learning about my own ethnic heritage (from multiple counties). Another takeaway was that no ethnicity has the right to hold themselves up as "most oppressed" - all these groups discussed had their struggles, obstacles, heartaches, trials and injustices.
All the more reason for us to be kind, accepting, and unified as Americans today and always .

Now dated, but still very instructive.

Sowell's style of letting the data speak for itself, over and over again puts the lie to the claim that racial prejudice or stereotyping accounts for the advancement of stagnation of any of America's many ethnic groups. At thirty years old, this book should be required reading in high schools and colleges across the country.

Excellent book, wish it was longer

This was a great book, dense with information about the various ethnic groups that make up our great nation. It's the story of struggle and progress, of challenge and overcoming, and overflowing with hope for the future.

Excellent! Education and interesting!

Ethnic America
By: Thomas Sowell
Narrated by: James Bundy

This book was recommended to me by someone and I am glad they did. I was able to pick the audible version up free from Audible because I have a membership and it's on the Plus catalog.

This book goes through each of the main groups of Immigrant population that has come to America. It follows the group as a whole through the years describing the difficulties, the places they moved to, jobs, education, what they contributed to America, male to female ratio, and so much more. There is invaluable information on each!

It really is astounding how thorough this book is. The only thing I disagree with in here is when he cites the IQ tests. We know now that IQ tests are often based on knowledge of the society you are familiar with. To give a test to a foreign child that has no knowledge of Western society is ridiculous.

Other than this, the book is a terrific book about each society and how it weaves together to make America, for better or worse. We can't change the past but we can change the future! There were prejudices against each of these groups. Not a shiny moment for us when every one of us, except the Native Americans, were from foreigners themselves. There is still that population that harbors hate towards minorities. Minorities made America!

Another great book by Dr Sowell

This was yet another great book by one of the smartest people and best researchers in the world today. This book is unbiased and loaded with historical facts. In that way, it's similar to Black Nednecks and White Liberals. I've been through almost every Sowell book and have yet to be disappointed. In terms of other works by Sowell, I would put this book in the upper 30% for its ease to follow and content.

Incredibly insightful and relevant

Thomas Sowell did an incredible job citing aspects of each culture/subculture of the groups of immigrants that came to America and provided much needed context and facts including challenges of which country they came from, which impacted the amount of risk they were willing to expose themselves and their families to, not to mention the level determination they, as a group, would become known to have. Sowell provides information that makes it clear each groups challenges, that lead to each risking their lives crossing the Atlantic Ocean for 1-3 months, with an uncertain outcome due to the real and known threat of disease and starvation during the trip,
The information Sowell provides reminds us that the superficial narratives the media likes to gaslight us with are non-productive and misleading.
Sowell does a great job addressing weaknesses and strengths of each group (i.e, the Irish, Italians, Germans, Jewish, British, etc.), which serves to highlight we are actually more similar than different in the sense we all ultimately must recognize what is helping us or holding us back and work around it if we want to succeed, and Sowell cites examples that illustrate this.