Migrations and Cultures
By Thomas Sowell
HarperCollins, 1997 - 528 pages

Migrations and Cultures, by Thomas Sowell, is an excellent book I am currently reading but the book is approximately 500 pages of small font and has limited graphics which makes for some long but very interesting reading.  The book, part of a trilogy of books Mr. Sowell has written about culture and its impact in countries, is extremely well researched.  To put it into perspective, each chapter has over 200 citations/sources cited.

This book, to me is very interesting for the following reasons.  

1. I am an immigrant, having moved to the U.S. from Canada at age four.  My father’s side of the family moved to Canada from Ireland during the Potato famine in the 19^th century.  Ross, my last name, is Scottish so another migration occurred some time in the 17^th century I believe.
2. The book looks at things from a world view and not from a U.S. view, a problem with so many U.S. authors.
3. It looks at 6 cultures and shows their impact on worldwide economic and social development.  The cultures looked at include (Chinese, Germans, Indians, Italians, Japanese and Jews).
4. A fairly common experience is arriving in a new country with nothing more than talents and skills.  As time progresses and these groups apply themselves they increased the wealth of their host country and enabled their subsequent generations to attain higher standards of living and wealth.

This is a well reasoned and researched book.

I am reading this book simply to get a better understanding of how various cultures impacted economies as they migrated. 

Specifically, think about this:

Economics is about land, labor, capital and productivity.  If a country experiences a mass exodus of talented people from its country it loses some ability to generate economic wealth in the process.  This, of course, hurts the standard of living in a country.  To me, it is a fascinating subject since the U.S. has seen huge inflows of people since it was founded.  Never, in the nations history, have I seen a time when everyone tried to leave the U.S.

About the Author: At age 72 Mr. Sowell is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow@ The Hoover Institution, part of Stanford University.  The author has a Ph.D. in Economics from The University of Chicago, an A.M. in Economics from Columbia University and an A.B. in Economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard College.