Thomas Sowell and his Marxist Roots: An examination of one man’s intellectual development by T Martin, Jr. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Honors Bachelor of Arts in History with Distinction Spring 2012 © 2012 T Martin, Jr. All Rights Reserved Thomas Sowell and his Marxist Roots: An examination of one man’s intellectual development by T Martin Approved: __________________________________________________________ John Bernstein, Ph.D. Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee Approved: __________________________________________________________ Jan Blits, Ph.D. Committee member from the Department of Department Name Approved: __________________________________________________________ Heidi Kaufman, Ph.D. Committee member from the Board of Senior Thesis Readers Approved: __________________________________________________________ Michael Arnold, Ph.D. Directory, University Honors Program ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The completion of this project serves as the capstone to both my academic requirements and my entire academic career to date. Concurrently, the year which has elapsed during the completion of this project has, in almost every way, served as the perfect culmination of my time at the University of Delaware. Observing both of these facts allows me to shun any nostalgia which has plagued me during the last few weeks and instead utilize the opportunity this section provides. In no particular order: To Dr. Bernstein: Thank you for sharpening me with your criticisms and constantly giving me the opportunity to succeed and flourish. Your patience and willingness to cooperate during this process allowed me to finish this paper under stressing circumstances while your courses provided me with the necessary background in intellectual history to complete this project. For all of these things I am very thankful. To Dr. Wolters: Thank you for supporting me throughout the entire portion of the process during which you were available. Your classes taught me to examine all sides of any social issue fairly and also introduced me to Thomas Sowell. Though you were forced to step down as a Second reader the mark of your tutelage on this project and my intellectual development cannot be ignored. To Dr. Blits: Your assistance in improving my writing throughout all four years of my time at the University of Delaware and your presence as a mentor has been invaluable. For all of this along with your unwavering faith in my ability to iii succeed in any task and your willingness to discuss any issue, I can only thank you earnestly. To my Mother: Your support throughout college, and my entire life, has allowed me to develop into the person that I am today. Without the strength or independence or many other valuable traits you instilled in me I never would have been able to complete this project—or lived so well. I cannot thank you enough for all of the things that you have done. To Sideshow: I could thank each and every person on the team that has affected me positively, albeit not without tainting my paper with profanity. We accomplished more than I ever thought we could have. Fear the Clown Song. To Sean: You allowed me to constantly barrage you with a discussion of this paper and, in doing so, allowed me to understanding where my deficiencies in understanding lie. Your support, kindness, and humor throughout these past years has been unending. Thanks. To my roommates and college mom: Thank you for allowing me to complete this project without too many distractions. Thank you for tolerating my repeated frustration with and discussion of this project. Thank you for being great roommates. To anyone and everyone who encouraged me to finish this project by either showing interest in it or by instilling confidence in me that I could complete such a venture: Thanks. My gratitude to all of the people mentioned above, and to everyone that I neglected, cannot be measured. So instead offering some quote or one-liner to correct for this inability, I offer one final thanks with the hope, though I know you will allow it to be the case, that this acknowledgement will suffice. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. vii 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Goals .......................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Methods ..................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Shortcomings ............................................................................................. 4 1.4 Marx and Engels ........................................................................................ 5 1.5 Thomas Sowell .......................................................................................... 7 2 The Methods of Karl Marx and Thomas Sowell ................................................ 9 2.1 Dialectic and the Inadequacy of the Bourgeois Scientific Method ........... 9 2.2 Historical analysis ................................................................................... 23 2.3 Thomas Sowell and Historical Materialism ............................................ 27 3 Marxian Political Economy .............................................................................. 32 3.1 Commodities and Capital ........................................................................ 33 3.2 Surplus Value .......................................................................................... 37 3.3 Theory of Value ....................................................................................... 41 3.4 Labor: Exploitation and Alienation? ....................................................... 45 3.5 Classes, Crises, and Revolution ............................................................... 51 3.6 Sowell and Revolution, Crises, and Classes ............................................ 59 4 Sowell as a Marxist? ......................................................................................... 62 4.1 Marx and his Ideal Society ...................................................................... 62 4.2 The Bourgeois Mode of Production: Capitalism ..................................... 73 4.3 Sowell’s Intellectual Development: Tracing the Deviation .................... 80 4.4 Thomas Sowell: Not a Marxist ................................................................ 89 4.5 Sowell’s Sympathy and Scorn ............................................................... 101 4.6 Sowell’s Admiration for Two Scholars and their Influence .................. 106 5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 110 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 112 v A A Partial View of Sources Utilized By Sowell in his Study of Marxism and Where They Appear ....................................................................................... 115 B Timeline of Thomas Sowell’s Life ................................................................. 117 vi ABSTRACT This paper consists of an examination of the intellectual development of Thomas Sowell. As a youth, Sowell studied Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels extensively—until he became a Marxist. Years later, however, Sowell could be described as a laissez faire economist. The paper is both an attempt to determine the extent to which, if at all, Marxism influenced Sowell’s intellectual development and an attempt to show how and why Sowell abandoned his Marxist roots. In order to bring this task to fruition, I establish a framework within which the links between Sowell and Marxism can be analyzed, concurrently with an identification of how Sowell’s current views developed out of its Marxian roots. In doing so, I attempt to demonstrate that Sowell’s study of Marxism affected his intellectual development so strongly that it still affects him today. vii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION As an African-American laissez faire economist with atypical views on culture, race, IQ, and education, Thomas Sowell has garnered considerable attention in the United States for his writings. But, despite the range of topics which he has written upon, Sowell is primarily an economic historian. Born in North Carolina in 1930 and raised in Harlem, Sowell did not show much promise as a scholar early on in his life. When he dropped out of high school and moved out of his adoption parents’ home so that he could achieve independence, he seemed to flounder. Sowell worked temporary jobs at low wages and struggled through night classes, eking out a living in his early twenties. He then was drafted and served in the United States Marine Corps as a photographer before finally returning to his formal education. After receiving a degree from Harvard in economics, he earned his master’s from Columbia in 1959 and spent some time working for the US government, in the private sector, and as an academic before receiving his PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1968. In 1980, he became a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he remains today. Throughout his entire youth Sowell was a Marxist. Having studied Marx independently and at Harvard, Sowell wrote his undergraduate thesis on Marxism