We do not live in the past, but the past is in us.

Neither genes nor discrimination are necessary to explain this situation, though some intellectuals and politicians have chosen to claim that the differences have been due to race and others have chosen to blame social injustices.

Thomas Sowell
Prof. Thomas Sowell during an interview at the Hoover Institution in 2015

It is a feast for the mind to follow the intellectual giant of the 21st century discussing the issue of race, culture, racism, prejudice, slavery, ethnicity, and the disparity between different societies and groups within the same society in one book. He does it in an objective, comprehensive way, using clear, precise, accessible language. The amount, accuracy and nature of information and facts this book contains are astonishing. Sowell uses examples from different parts of the world to discuss the human nature and the effect of culture, geography, and economics on our abilities and behaviours.

The author presents a deep, honest, and complex understanding of the disparity between the different races and ethnic groups, which contradicts the dominant narrative. He shows that what seems to be the obvious is merely a narrow and superficial perception. In this book, Sowell discloses the shortcomings of the dominant narratives and the motives of their proponents. He proves with irrefutable evidence that most of the notions and understandings explaining the disparity between different groups which are taken as facts by the media and educational systems across the world are nothing but myths and fabrications.

The book unveils the fact that many Western politicians and academics lack the necessary knowledge and analytical ability to understand racism, cultural differences as well as the nature of human societies and how they have been evolving and why. It debunks many ideas and notions from the sphere of social sciences which are currently perpetuated as the only valid reasoning. Every one of the discussed phenomena is examined through understanding its historical development and basis, and across different societies and countries.  

Similar to Wealth, Poverty and Politics; Dismantling America; Black rednecks and White Liberals; The Vision of the Anointed, in this book Sowell introduces the reader not just to new ideas but to an original way of perceiving the world.

This is a book worth reading.