Yep, I've got all of Sowell's books that you've mentioned. Arguably one of America's great thinkers. His
Culture trio is also excellent and worthwhile. Sorrythat I hadn't noticed your previous postings of Muravchik's work - and I agree - that last paragraph alone IS worth the price of the book. Muravshik really intrigued me with the notion that only in the last few millenia has mankind's religious outlook included a moral dimension, incorporating a moral code. This is the common thread running through all the world's great religious and philosophical systems. Another common thread is mankind's propensity for manipulating that moral code for their own ends.
At the end of the day, the essential nature of the conflict remains the same. It's the millienia-old struggle between those who believe that they have the right to dictate the terms of existence to eveyone else, and those of us who believe that no such right exists. Once again, that struggle is coming to a head, another watershed of human history. What's at stake is more than most of care to recognize - the potential for a fall of humanity into a thousand years or more of slaughter, slavery, brutality and darkness that'll make the worst of the Dark Ages seem tame.