The history of different races and how they adapt and assimalate sucessfully or unsucessfully is a sticky and controversial one. In fact, it is so controversial that it has been a topic that has largely been left uncovered. Many of the studies that have been done on the topic were done by crackpots whose thesis was that one culture or race was superior to all others and it just happened to be the same one as the authors. The result has been that the history of studying Racial History has been just as controversial as racial history. Sowell argues that some races succed while others fail for a number of reasons that have to do with the internal characteristics of the culture.
Some cultures are lazy, while some work harder.
Other cultures are more intelligent, while others do not have the brain capacity to compete with the more dominant cultures. Sowell looks at several races and compares them to determine why some have been sucessful while others have failed. Sowell sees two major reasons for the sucess and failures of these races. The cultures of the sucessful races reward hard work and saving, even if it is at the lowest end of the social status totem pole. The unsucessful races have been put off by hard work and seem as beneath them to do it.