Milton Friedman

June 1, 2023

In Milton Friedman, Stanford history professor Burns (Goddess of the Market) offers a full-scale biography of the influential economist, showing how his insistence that capitalism and freedom are closely linked created a new view of economics and a new type of U.S. conservatism (30,000-copy first printing). Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2023 Library Journal

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2023
The first full-length biography of the 20th century's free market champion. To call this book merely a biography of Milton Friedman (1912-2006) is a disservice. It would be difficult to imagine a more comprehensive portrait of the influences, hard economics, and personal struggles and triumphs that shaped his life. From Friedman's upbringing in New Jersey as the son of Jewish immigrants to his work on economic policy in the federal government during the New Deal, his scholarship at the University of Chicago, and the Nobel Prize in economics, Stanford history professor Burns sets Friedman's story within the context of the evolution of 20th-century economic theories and the individuals who influenced them, including luminaries such as John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek. The author examines Friedman's work with the concepts of monetarism, price theory, and free market capitalism; his conservatism and reliance on tradition and first principles in the development of new economic interpretations; and his association with the American conservative political movement. Burns briefly touches on Friedman's popular TV series Free to Choose, which gave him an even wider audience. The program, notes the author, "proved a major platform for Friedman's views, dovetailing with the emergent anti-government, tax-cutting sentiment the Reagan campaign was built on." Burns also delivers a wonderful profile of the central figure in Friedman's life, his wife, Rose, a formidable intellect and economist in her own right, in addition to discussing the role several other women economists played in his career. The author is evenhanded throughout and unafraid to critique. Her analysis of Friedman's work and interests, the descriptions of his wrangles with antisemitism, and her exploration of the role of women in the field of economics are sharp and illuminating. The book, both demanding and thorough, is not for casual readers, but it is required reading for anyone interested in the history of academic and applied economics, the principles of free market capitalism, and one of its most celebrated defenders. A masterful profile of a most consequential American.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 6, 2023
Stanford historian Burns (Goddess of the Market) delivers a robust if somewhat dry survey of the evolution of Milton Friedman’s economic thought—particularly his struggles to make sense of inflation—and his lasting impact on global monetary policy and conservative politics. Friedman’s economic philosophy, known as “monetarism,” sought to balance the maximization of personal freedom through limited government involvement in economic matters against the belief that inflation needed to be managed, and the best way to do so was to “ upon government control of money.” (This includes the printing of money and the international system of floating exchange rates.) Burns explains that Friedman’s ideas about freedom and government were forged in his young adulthood during the Great Depression (he argued against the direct government intervention, such as hiring public works employees and price controls, that characterized the American response), and can be traced through his other social and political beliefs, among them his resistance to the civil rights movement (“his concept of freedom was woefully thin,” Burns writes). Friedman’s personality occasionally shines through (when his wife dragged him to the opera, he brought along a book to read), but Burns’s focus is on the institutional ramifications of his theory and activism (she notes that by teaming up with far-right politician Barry Goldwater, Friedman “solidified an alliance between libertarian economics and reactionary populism”). It’s a comprehensive accounting of Friedman’s legacy.

October 27, 2023

Burns (history, Stanford Univ.; Goddess of the Market) focuses her latest book on Milton Friedman (1912-2006), one of the 20th century's most influential economists. She utilizes extensive archival sources to paint a picture of the 1976 Nobel Prize winner. In the 1970s and 1980s, he developed his theories by traveling the globe to learn and share ideas about fighting inflation. He concluded that reduced government intervention, expanded markets, and cutting taxes would result in the highest level of free market capitalism. He promoted his beliefs through the PBS series Free To Choose. The author shows that Milton had long-standing collaborations with women such as fellow economist Anna Jacobson Schwartz, who coauthored the 1971 A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 with him to much acclaim. Friedman's instrumental economic philosophy was introduced as one of the core messages of Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign and continued into the Reagan years and beyond, influencing policy makers such as Arthur Burns, former chair of the Federal Reserve. VERDICT One of the most brilliant biographies of Friedman to date. For both general readers and economics scholars.--Claude Ury

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.