It's thesis is that Black subculture is a transfer of Southern white culture which was brought into the South by the Border Britons, North English and Lowland Scot. This culture of living for the moment, sloth, anti-intellectualism, sexual patterns and low regard for human life has been a millstone around African-Americans....
Interesting idea, I may have to read the book. However, I'm currently reading a book entitled
Freedom Colonies: Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow by Thad Sitton* and James H. Conrad, and it indicates that the above idea isn't entirely true. Apparently freed slaves started acquiring land throughout the South after the Civil War, and in Texas the numbers peaked in 1900, with 31% of black Texans owning land.
While I imagine that there's some truth to Mr. Sowell's hypothesis, I think the creation of the welfare system deserves some of the blame for the cultural problems we're facing at the moment. It's possible, though, that I'm not giving him enough credit. I guess I'll just have to read the book.
James
*I highly recommend Thad Sitton's books to anyone interested in Texas folk history, especially
Texas High Sheriffs. It's a collection of compiled and edited interviews with sheriffs who served between the 1920s and 1970s, and while it isn't always pleasant, it is fascinating.