This is not a comforting book -- it is a book about disturbing issues that are urgently important today and enduringly critical for the future. It rejects both "merit" and historical redress as principles for guiding public policy. It shows how "peace" movements have led to war and to needless casualties in those wars. It argues that "equality" is neither right nor wrong, but meaningless. "The Quest for Cosmic Justice" shows how confused conceptions of justice end up promoting injustice, how confused conceptions of equality end up promoting inequality, and how the tyranny of social visions prevents many people from confronting the actual consequences of their own beliefs and policies. Those consequences include the steady and dangerous erosion of the fundamental principles of freedom -- and the quiet repeal of the American revolution.

Author Biography

Thomas Sowell is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute and the author of "A Personal Odyssey, The Vision of the Anointed, Ethnic America, " and several other books. His essays have appeared in "The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Forbes, " and "Fortune" and are syndicated in 150 newspapers. He lives in Stanford, California.