Posted by David Bernstein: Milton Friedman, 94, Champion of Liberty: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_11_12-2006_11_18.shtml#1163702472
I've just learned that Milton Friedman died today. He was, without question, one of twentieth century's greatest champions of liberty. The debt of intellectual gratitude that I, along with so many others, owe him, is simply immense. Without realizing it at the time, I virtually grew up on Friedman, as my dad's self-tutoring in economics owed a great deal to his weekly Newsweek columns. I first read Friedman myself when I was in college, and his influence on me was, and remains, profound. Every so often I go back and read Capitalism and Freedom and am amazed at how many important insights that little book contained. In hindsight, my work on race and economic regulation during the Lochner era is a direct outgrowth of reading Capitalism and Freedom, as I told Friedman many years ago. I did have the good fortune to meet him once, and beyond his great intellectual power, and his tremendous positive influence on the world, he (unlike most of other great libertarians of the 20th century, e.g., Ayn Rand) was an absolute mensch. My condolences to the Friedman family, and to all who loved and admired him. _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
