Search
Log in
  • Home

  • Categories

  • Audiobooks

  • E-books

  • For kids

  • Top lists

  • Help

  • Download app

  • Use campaign code

  • Redeem gift card

  • Try free now
  • Log in
  • Language

    🇩🇰 Danmark

    • DK
    • EN

    🇧🇪 Belgique

    • FR
    • EN

    🇩🇪 Deutschland

    • DE
    • EN

    🇪🇸 España

    • ES
    • EN

    🇫🇷 France

    • FR
    • EN

    🇳🇱 Nederland

    • NL
    • EN

    🇳🇴 Norge

    • NO
    • EN

    🇦🇹 Österreich

    • AT
    • EN

    🇨🇭 Schweiz

    • DE
    • EN

    🇫🇮 Suomi

    • FI
    • EN

    🇸🇪 Sverige

    • SE
    • EN
  1. Books
  2. Biographies
  3. Philosophy and society

Read and listen for free for 14 days!

Cancel anytime

Try free now
4.5(2)

A Personal Odyssey

This is the gritty story of one man's lifelong education in the school of hard knocks, as his journey took him from Harlem to the Marines, the Ivy League, and a career as a controversial writer, teacher, and economist in government and private industry. It is also the story of the dramatically changing times in which this personal odyssey took place.

The vignettes of the people and places that made an impression on Thomas Sowell at various stages of his life range from the poor and the powerless to the mighty and the wealthy, from a home for homeless boys to the White House, as well as ranging across the United States and around the world. It also includes Sowell's startling discovery of his own origins during his teenage years.

If the child is father to the man, this memoir shows the characteristics that have become familiar in the public figure known as Thomas Sowell already present in an obscure little boy born in poverty in the Jim Crow South during the Great Depression and growing up in Harlem. His marching to his own drummer, his disregard of what others say or think, even his battles with editors who attempt to change what he has written, are all there in childhood.

More than a story of the life of Sowell himself, this is also a story of the people who gave him their help, their support, and their loyalty, as well as those who demonized him and knifed him in the back. It is a story not just of one life, but of life in general, with all its exhilaration and pain.


Author:

  • Thomas Sowell

Format:

  • E-book

Duration:

  • 290 pages

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Biographies
  • Philosophy and society
  • Society and Social Sciences
  • Society
  • Warfare
  • Social science

More by Thomas Sowell

Skip the list
  1. Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays

    Thomas Sowell

    audiobook
  2. Ever Wonder Why?

    Thomas Sowell

    audiobook
  3. Controversial Essays

    Thomas Sowell

    audiobook
  4. The Einstein Syndrome

    Thomas Sowell

    audiobook
  5. Is Reality Optional?

    Thomas Sowell

    audiobook
  6. The Vision of the Anointed

    Thomas Sowell

    audiobook
  7. Inside American Education

    Thomas Sowell

    audiobook
  8. Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas

    Thomas Sowell

    book
  9. The Quest for Cosmic Justice

    Thomas Sowell

    book

Others have also read

Skip the list
  1. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

    Samuel P. Huntington

    book
  2. The Sober Survival Guide

    Simon Chapple

    audiobook
  3. The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 : An Experiment in Literary Investigation

    Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

    audiobook
  4. The 33 Strategies of War

    Robert Greene

    audiobook
  5. Hard-Kåre - Historien om en af Danmarks mest succesrige topchefer

    Kåre Schultz

    audiobookbook
  6. STORGY

    Chris Arp, H C Child, Curtis Dickerson, Aleksei Drakos, Lucy Durneen, Karina Evans, Sarah Evans, Rab Ferguson, Dyane Forde, Juliet Hill, Jacqueline Horrix, Rowena Macdonald, Scott Palmer, Thomas Stewart

    book
  7. The 50th Law

    50 50 Cent, Robert Greene

    audiobook
  8. Shoe Dog : A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

    Phil Knight

    audiobookbook
  9. Morten Strunge : En iværksætterberetning om at satse alt, tabe alt, udfordre de store ... og vinde til sidst

    Jakob Skouboe

    audiobookbook
  10. Det hele handler ikke om dig : Antikke principper for et liv med sindsro, frihed og mening

    Niels Overgaard

    audiobookbook
  11. Danmarks historie

    Henning Dehn-Nielsen, Palle Lauring

    audiobookbook
  12. Det kreative samfund : Hvordan Vesten vinder fremtiden

    Lars Tvede

    audiobookbook

  • 11 books

    Thomas Sowell

    Thomas Sowell is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has been a professor of economics at leading American colleges and universities and has lectured in Singapore, Israel, Switzerland, and Germany, as well as across the United States.

    Read more

Help and contact


About us

  • Our story
  • Career
  • Press
  • Accessibility
  • Partner with us
  • Investor relations
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Explore

  • Categories
  • Audiobooks
  • E-books
  • Magazines
  • For kids
  • Top lists

Popular categories

  • Crime
  • Biographies and reportage
  • Fiction
  • Feel-good and romance
  • Personal development
  • Children's books
  • True stories
  • Sleep and relaxation

Nextory

Copyright © 2025 Nextory AB

Privacy Policy · Terms ·
Excellent4.3 out of 5