A Brief History of the Jews by Thomas Sowell

Excerpt from Thomas Sowell "The Economics and Politics of Race: An International Perspective" ...Thomas Sowell makes one of the strongest cases against blaming society at large for the outcomes of various groups. He takes the reader through history from the Germans & Irish in America to the Italians in Brazil and shows how their cultural/human capital made a positive/negative impact on those countries as a whole. Group differences are just that and some groups are further behind than others. Sowell is one of the only authors I've read that tackles "differences" with such grace & truth. Other authors like Charles Murray and Arthur Jensen seem to have another agenda their propagating while Sowell sticks to the facts and stresses the fact that culture not biology itself is what allows groups to succeed. Overall, politics has the power to produce programs that are relative to the politicians in power. Human capital is developed through cultural processes that aren't always at the mercy of third party politicians. Sowell also points out that throughout history where ever dominate groups gained power to discriminate they did and were quite effective. However, it was not pervasively effective in the long run. Ex. Much of the Jews wealth was confiscated by the government in Germany however they were able to produce wealth again in other countries they migrated to. Blacks were not allowed to learn how to read at one point in our country however they closed the literacy gap with two centuries.