It feels as if the clapper of every bell in the land should be wrapped in muffling, to toll on, quietly and sombrely, for days on end–except that WFB himself would have wanted at least certain bells to go right on ringing, brightly and loudly. Including that great liberty bell, Thomas Sowell.

We have, now, the examples of Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, and, of course, Clarence Thomas, whose accumulating importance as a jurist becomes harder to deny with each decision the high court hands down. But when Thomas Sowell first came to WFB’s attention, appearing on “Firing Line” during the seventies, WFB, as he later told me, could scarcely believe that one man could combine such intellectual and moral courage.

Today on Uncommon Knowledge, Part Four of the interview with Thomas Sowell about his new book, Economic Facts and Fallacies. Here we discuss the American academy. What, just for instance, does Thomas Sowell make of Barack Obama’s proposal for a $4,000-a-year tuition tax credit? “I think tuition would probably rise by $4,000 very soon thereafter.”

For one of the polemicists WFB himself most admired, just watch.