This is not a comforting book -- it is a book about disturbing issues that are urgently important today and enduringly critical for the future. It rejects both "merit" and historical redress as principles for guiding public policy. It shows how "peace" movements have led to war and to needless casualties in those wars. It argues that "equality" is neither right nor wrong, but meaningless.
The Quest for Cosmic Justice shows how confused conceptions of justice end up promoting injustice, how confused conceptions of equality end up promoting inequality, and how the tyranny of social visions prevents many people from confronting the actual consequences of their own beliefs and policies. Those consequences include the steady and dangerous erosion of the fundamental principles of freedom -- and the quiet repeal of the American revolution.
Thomas Sowell is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute and the author of A Personal Odyssey, 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.
Judge Robert H. Bork In The Quest for Cosmic Justice Thomas Sowell once again displays his distinctive combination of erudition, analytical power, and uncommon sense. He exposes in all its fraudulence the sense of injustice that rebels against inevitable features of human life, producing congeries of utopian reforms that drastically, and futilely, diminish America's liberties.
George Gilder author of Wealth and Poverty Thomas Sowell is the most original and important conservative thinker of the late twentieth century, illuming this epoch of conservative triumph over the socialism and racism of the left. The Quest for Cosmic Justice is yet another high point on his heroic journey.
Lino A. Graglia author of Disaster by Decree: The Supreme Court Decisions on Race and the Schools Sowell is our leading practitioner of social commentary based on clear-eyed, hardheaded common sense. He provides insights -- e.g., intellectuals ("the anointed") opt for policies (e.g., disarmament over readiness) that demonstrate their moral superiority -- and destroys myths -- e.g., mortgage lenders discriminate against blacks -- on every issue he touches. Like his previous work, The Quest for Cosmic Justice is an antidote for the temptation to moralistic irrationality in public policymaking. In addition he is a wonderful phrasemaker and a delight to read.
David Boaz author of Libertarianism: A Primer and editor of The Libertarian Reader No one should pronounce on justice or equality again without grappling with Thomas Sowell's powerful argument. In this book, reflecting a lifetime of wide-ranging research and careful reflection, Sowell makes us understand the differences between results and processes, between "cosmic justice" and traditional justice, between the rule of law and the power to do good. The ratio of insights to words in this book is remarkably high.