An Economist Best Book of 2023 | One of The New York Times' 33 Nonfiction Books to Read This Fall | Named a most anticipated fall book by the Chicago Tribune and Bloomberg | Finalist for the 2024 Hayek Book Prize

"Wherever you sit on the political spectrum, there's a lot to learn from this book. More than a biography of one controversial person, it's an intellectual history of twentieth-century economic thought."

Greg Rosalesky, NPR's Planet Money

The first full biography of America's most renowned economist.

Milton Friedman was, alongside John Maynard Keynes, the most influential economist of the twentieth century. His work was instrumental in the turn toward free markets that defined the 1980s, and his full-throated defenses of capitalism and freedom resonated with audiences around the world. It's no wonder the last decades of the twentieth century have been called "the Age of Friedman"-or that analysts have sought to hold him responsible for both the rising prosperity and the social ills of recent times.

In Milton Friedman, the first full biography to employ archival sources, the historian Jennifer Burns tells Friedman's extraordinary story with the nuance it deserves. She provides lucid and lively context for his groundbreaking work on everything from why dentists earn less than doctors, to the vital importance of the money supply, to inflation and the limits of government planning and stimulus. She traces Friedman's long-standing collaborations with women, including the economist Anna Schwartz; his complex relationships with powerful figures such as the Federal Reserve chairman Arthur Burns and the Treasury secretary George Shultz; and his direct interventions in policymaking at the highest levels. Most of all, Burns explores Friedman's key role in creating a new economic vision and a modern American conservatism. The result is a revelatory biography of America's first neoliberal-and perhaps its last great conservative.

"Burns's book functions as an intellectual guide to the entire 20th century, benefiting from nearly a decade of archival research."

The Economist

"Burns has a rare ability to wield economic terms and concepts clearly and precisely, without either dumbing them down or resorting to phony erudition. Rather than simply tell us that Friedman was marked by an early reading of Alfred Marshall, she will tell us what is in Alfred Marshall and where it shows up in Friedman's work. In explaining how Friedman's ideas of the Fed's role differed from those of his rivals, she explains what "open market operations" are, what a "primary dealer" is, what the "federal funds rate" is, and so on. The arguments are both sophisticated and easy to follow."

Christopher Caldwell, First Things

"[Burns] presents not only a well-researched and nuanced biographical sketch of Milton Friedman, but also, in tracing his influence, a riveting tour de force of economic history across the twentieth century."

Robert Steven Mack, The New Criterion

"Enriched by access to Friedman's papers [. . .], Burns pulls together in satisfying fashion details of Friedman's life that formerly lay scattered. She also provides the academic background with a compelling portrait of Friedman's first revolution [at] the University of Chicago. Her analysis of how Friedman and his allies made price theory king at Chicago is not to be missed. Nor are the stories."

Amity Shlaes, National Review

"A most delightful and informative biography . . . If one has a yen for matters political economic, [this book is] beautifully researched candy."

Brian Domitrovic, Forbes

"A testament to the power of ideas... Friedman's life never drags. Although large sections of the book deal with abstract economic theory and complicated technical matters that were the subject of immense debate between Friedman and various academic and professional economists, Burns manages to make them compelling to a lay reader because she puts them in human terms."

Max Blaisdell, Chicago Reader

"Jennifer Burns manages in her new biography the near-impossible feat of doing justice to Friedman, both as an economist and more widely as - to quote the book's title in a nod to how US conservatism has been degraded in the era of Trump - "the last conservative"... Burns is superb at explaining complicated economic ideas... Burns has written a wonderful biography, but it is more than that. It is an intellectual history of the US in the last 70 years of the 20th century and, as such, is an important read."

Stephen Pollard, Jewish Chronicle

"[A] definitive biography... Burns does a wonderful job of explaining the methodological importance of Friedman's thought... Burns' masterful biography of Milton Friedman is more than an intellectual portrait. It's a rich reminder of how ideas, historical context, and personal relationships shape the world we make."

Michael Peterson, American Institute for Economic Research

Ladenpreis Deutschland € 43,10

ISBN 9780374601140

Macmillan

Sprache Englisch