On Sale: Jun 5, 2007
Page Count: 352 pages
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN-13: 9780465002054

$23.99

$29.99 CAD

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The landmark explanation of the competing visions of human nature that lie at the heart of our political conflicts

“A classic of a very special kind…Reading it is like looking up at the night sky and discovering a new constellation.” —Christian Science Monitor

Controversies in politics arise from many sources, but the conflicts that endure for generations or centuries show a remarkably consistent pattern. In this classic work, Thomas Sowell analyzes this pattern. He describes the two competing visions that shape our debates about the nature of reason, justice, equality, and power: the “constrained” vision, which sees human nature as unchanging and selfish, and the “unconstrained” vision, in which human nature is malleable and perfectible. A Conflict of Visions offers a convincing case that ethical and policy disputes circle around the disparity between both outlooks.

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Thomas Sowell is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. For more than half a century, his writings have appeared in both popular and scholarly publications, on both sides of the Atlantic, and his books have been translated into a dozen foreign languages. After a career as an economist in the government, academia and the corporate world, he has since 1980 been a scholar in residence at the Hoover Institution, devoting his efforts to research and writing, on subjects ranging from the history and influence of intellectuals to education and social policies in countries around the world.

“Extraordinary on several counts...Sowell makes his case fairly, lucidly, and persuasively.”
New York Times Book Review
“A classic of a very special kind...Reading it is like looking up at the night sky and discovering a new constellation.”
Christian Science Monitor
“Thomas Sowell is one of the few conservative thinkers in America today who is interesting as a theorist....A worthwhile book.”
Washington Post
“Mr. Sowell’s book has been influential among conservatives for its compelling explanation of the divide between people who want to reshape us—often via large intrusions on liberty—and those who believe that the purpose of government is to protect institutions (like markets and families) that channel our inherent selfishness into productive behavior.”
Wall Street Journal
“A fine book...Sowell’s illuminating guide to the political conflicts of our age teaches the valuable lesson that political choices always involve costs.”
Commentary
“A Conflict of Visions is recommended herewith to anybody sufficiently interested in the American condition to try to get beneath the surface of partisanship, trendy issues, and pop ideology to the philosophical foundations of the Republic.”
Boston Globe
“An excellent condensation of two centuries of social thought.”
Booklist
“A provocative analysis of the conflicting visions of human nature that have shaped the moral, legal, and economic life of recent times.”
Publishers Weekly
“A broadly sweeping philosophical analysis.”
Kirkus

Thomas Sowell

About the Author

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is the author of dozens of books including Charter Schools and Their Enemies, winner of the 2021 Hayek Book Prize. He is the recipient of numerous other awards, including the National Humanities Medal, presented by the President of the United States in 2003.

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