Maverick

Jason L. Riley's book is the first full biography of Thomas Sowell, the social theorist whose conservative arguments have made him one of the most debated figures in American public life. Riley traces a career of more than fifty years and over thirty books that take on economic history, social inequality, political theory, race, and culture.

Sowell's challenges to liberal orthodoxy have earned him a devoted readership, but they have also angered other intellectuals, civil-rights leaders, and much of the mainstream press. Riley argues that critics focused on political correctness have failed to give Sowell's scholarship its due, and he answers those detractors directly.

The book presents Sowell's most important writings alongside the life events that shaped them. It follows how a child orphaned and raised in the Jim Crow South grew into one of the country's leading public intellectuals.