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A Conflict of Visions

Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

A Conflict of Visions Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Thomas Sowell

Formats and Prices

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

Price

$23.99

Price

$29.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Trade Paperback $23.99 $29.99 CAD
  2. ebook $16.99 $21.99 CAD

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Thomas Sowell’s “extraordinary” explication of the competing visions of human nature lie at the heart of our political conflicts (New York Times)

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.

Genre:

  • "Extraordinary on several counts...[Sowell] makes his case fairly, lucidly and persuasively."
    The 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
  • "[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
  • "[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
  • "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

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Thomas Sowell

About the Author

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. His website is http://www.tsowell.com.

Learn more about this author