O'Connor Institute Constitution Series to Showcase Thomas Sowell

PHOENIX, May 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sandra Day O'Connor Institute For American Democracy will present a complimentary webcast featuring Manhattan Institute Fellow and Wall Street Journal columnist Jason L. Riley to discuss his new book MAVERICK: A Biography of Thomas Sowell and the film Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World. Open to the public on Thursday, June 10, 2021, at 2 p.m. EDT, the webcast is part of the Institute's Constitution Series: Equality and Justice for All. Guest moderator will be Steven Pinker, Harvard University Johnstone Family Professor, Department of Psychology, and named to Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World Today."

Jason Riley has written about politics, economics, education, immigration and social inequality for more than 20 years. In Maverick, he offers an in-depth look at Thomas Sowell. "You're about to meet one of the greatest minds of the past half-century," states Riley. "His story is both fascinating and illuminating."

Thomas Sowell is one of the great social theorists of our age. In a career spanning more than a half-century, he has written over 30 books, covering topics from economic history and social inequality to political theory, race, and culture. In the first-ever biography of Sowell, Riley gives this iconic thinker his due. Maverick showcases Sowell's most significant writings and traces the life events that shaped his ideas and resulted in a Black orphan from the Jim Crow South becoming one of our foremost public intellectuals.

Sowell began his life's journey in rural North Carolina. As a boy, his family migrated to Harlem, New York, where his intellectual hunger and lifelong love of learning were kick-started with an introduction to the Harlem Library and culminated at the esteemed Hoover Institution. Between Harlem and Hoover, Sowell's intellectual honesty and quest for facts took him into the Marine's Combat Camera Corps during the Korean War, then onto Harvard, Columbia University and The University of Chicago for his Ph.D. in economics.

During the webcast, Riley will also showcase a segment of the new documentary Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World, from the Free to Choose Network. The one-hour documentary, hosted by Riley and featuring Professor Steven Pinker, offers insights from Sowell, interviews with colleagues and those he has inspired, revealing why the intensely private Sowell is considered by many to be "the smartest person in the room."

The O'Connor Institute Constitution Series was launched in 2020 to convene civil dialogue and foster societal solutions. With core values of inclusivity, civility and collaboration, the Institute believes that the expressed ideals of this great nation require exploring justice and equality. Following Justice O'Connor's retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court, she founded the O'Connor Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization to advance American democracy through multigenerational civil discourse, civic engagement and civics education. For more information and to register for the free webcast, visit www.OConnorInstitute.org. 

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SOURCE Sandra Day O'Connor Institute For American Democracy