A distinguished historian looks at a large number of human migrations over a long period of time, considering the economic, ethnic, cultural, and social effects of immigration from a global perspective. Reprint. NYT. Amazon.com Review
To future generations, the late 20th century may come to be known as the time of the DPs: Displaced Persons. Migration and refugeeism are raising inflammatory issues from unified Germany to the Tex-Mex border. Into th… More >>
Migrations And Cultures: A World View
While Sowell does an outstanding job with the material he includes in this book, he has excluded key material. I fail to understand how anyone could write a book about migrations and culture without including a chapter on the nineteenth century emigrations of Irish Famine victims to America and Australia with the attendent impact on the cultural mores of both countries. Not only does Sowell not include a chapter on this major historical event, there are only a handful of references to the Irish in the book at all! Readers of Migrations and Cultures should proceed with the caveat that Sowell’s treatment is less than thorough.
Rating: 3 / 5
Dr. Sowell has again done a masterful job of presenting information on the status of minorities, both historically and geographically, which is usually not included in the debate about the situation of the minorities in the United States. His insights are very useful and should be included in every high school and college curriculum.
Rating: 4 / 5
MaC is a series of case-studies looking at the migratory patterns and experiences of several different ethnic/national groups. Sometiems referred to a Cliomatrics, this approach to history relies heavily on statistics and, while informative, does lend itself to a dry read. I had thought that this was going to be more of a macro- and analytical work. Oh well.
MaC isn’t bad but I think it’s appeal is limited. I got about 75% through before I lost interest; the same trends occur within each group so it was getting rather redundant. I would have given in 3 stars but I just got bored.
Not bad but not recommended.
Rating: 2 / 5
Migratiosn and Cultures does a really great job of describing how different ethnic groups around the world have migrates from their native lands to go new lands in search of work. It focuses on both permant migration as well as temproary migration. Sowell shows how their culture has affected what type of job these groups have gone into and how they have faired in comparision to their native populations. It shows how native populations differ in how they treat the migrants like the differenced in the treatment of the Jews. It also shows how native populations can start a backlash against the new ethnic groups like Jews in various countries, Chinese in Southeast Asia, Indians in east Africa and Germans in Russia and eastern Europe.
Overall, the book tries makes connections between how cultures affects its inhabitants even as the move to new lands and how it affects the descendants of those people.
Rating: 5 / 5
Hooray for Thomas Sowell again. This books brings you in contact with the essential facts of people migrations and more…
He covers the German, Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Jewish and Indian migrations. Cultures are not equal was one of the main conclusions I received from this book.
As a result of this book I have found a deeper respect for the cultures mentioned in the book. I also see that the lives built by these people was built from pure grit and toil.
How does my culture affect my future? How does my culture affect my economic well-being? These are all questions I have come to ask as a result of reading this book.
This book is the second book in a series. The series is as follows:
1) Race and Culture
2) Migration and Culture
3) Conquest and Culture
and a 4th related book called Affirmative Action an Empirical Study
This book has shaped my personal view of immigration, emigration and minorities. I now can base my views on historical facts rather than popular or polarizing news articles.
Rating: 5 / 5