About the Author

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and the author of The Quest for Cosmic Justice, The Vision of the Anointed, Ethnic America, and several other books. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Forbes, and Fortune, and are syndicated in 150 newspapers. He lives in Stanford, California.

Reviews

Imagine a life in which you succeed at every task you undertake, you vanquish every opponent in a verbal dual, and you show off your mental prowess outrageously and get away with it. This is the essence of Sowell's life story, as he tells it. Even his divorce is depicted as if he had no part in it. Modesty is not one of his strengths. The author, a well-known conservative educator and economist, heaps criticism on just about everyone whoever crossed him or attempted to thwart his ambitious rise from a difficult home life and semipoverty to national prominence. Like Reagan and Teflon, nothing sticks to Sowell, at least in his version. Either way, he must get credit for what appears to be total recall. Fact or fiction, listeners may judge for themselves. Jeff Riggenbach provides his usual proficient narration. Recommended. Mark Pumphrey, Polk Cty. P.L., Columbus, NC Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

David Horowitz author of Radical Son Thomas Sowell is a national treasure. In our time, no one has written more wisely on the issues of culture and race.
Norman Podhoretz author of My Love Affair with America This account of Thomas Sowell's "odyssey" is an indispensable clue to the mystery of how he managed to become the extraordinary man he is and one of the few intellectuals of our time who deserves to be called heroic.
William Julius Wilson Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Truly Disadvantaged Thomas Sowell's A Personal Odyssey is a tour de force. After reading this very engaging and well-written memoir, readers will clearly understand why Sowell, a man who does not sacrifice his principles, is one of the most provocative and influential public intellectuals in the last half century.