Milton Friedman: A Biography

Milton Friedman has had a fascinating life, and frankly he deserves a better biography than this. The book was obviously well researched but it was thoroughly boring throughout. Dry facts, nothing else. Pity.

The biographical works on Milton Friedman and Peter Drucker serve as business models for my work on charisma and charismatic leadership. My sole purpose for reading "Milton Friedman" was to determine Friedman's strategy for becoming an eminent economist through scholastic excellence. In short, what made Friedman an international giant in economics among the thousands of economic professors throughout the world?Within the hundreds of pages within "Milton Friedman," page 181 is the crown jewel I was looking for. There were a few factors that led to Friedman's international fame, including:1. Publishing his seminal works, "Capitalism and Freedom" and "A Monetary History of the United States."2. Participating in Goldwater's campaign which gave Friedman a different stage outside of academia to illustrate the relevance of his work.3. Writing regularly for Newsweek4. Speaking tirelessly as a lecturer as well as being a prolific writer within different forums.5. Appearing on programs such as "Meet the Press," which provided Friedman a larger audience to express his Free Market and Libertarian thoughts and ideas.All in all, Friedman utilized the University of Chicago as a launching pad to disseminate his thoughts and ideas through publishing, speaking, political activity, and the media to become an international star in the field of Economics."Milton Friedman" is an excellent outline of how to create, cultivate, and cash-in on intellectual capital.Edward BrownCore Edge Image & Charisma Institute

A well balanced account of both the life and works of the greatest economist of the 20th century. Friedman is more than a mere economist. He expressed in his books and teachings what all freedom lovers know at heart. Free property rights and free markets are all we poor folks asks for; we want to play the game too, taking the risks and the profits together. Rich Liberals know that the more they spread freedom around, the less privileges they have. So they stuff up the game with rules that leave only them playing, while we watch and take the crumbs (and stupidly ask for more crumbs when we should kick them out of office).Friedman was so intellectualy overpowering that he could afford to speak clearly, so that everybody, and not only the academia, could understand. His 'Free to Choose' should be a mandatory read in every school in America. Friedman spoke the truth on social and economical issues, but America is out of love with freedom.

A great man's story in a well written book. I sent two to friends as gifts. I think Milton Friedman's genius eclipses Von Mises, Adam Smith, and certainly John Maynard Keynes! When you finish it, take a leisurely stroll through the Friedmans" book, Free to Choose.

It's hard to write a review of this awkward biography without slipping into a review of the ideas of Milton Friedman himself. I'm not a Friedman adulator, which Lanny Ebenstein clearly is. Indeed, his eagerness to defend Friedman's record -- on every front from interdepartmental strife at the U of Chicago to Friedman's role in the villainous Pinochet regime in Chile -- is the fundamental weakness of the book. At times, the 'apologist' doth protest too much; Friedman himself often declared that only accuracy of predictions should be the criterion for judging an economic theory, but Ebenstein defends incorrect predictions that Friedman made time after time -- his prediction, for instance, that Clinton's policies would promise "a relatively slow 1990s" -- invariably suggesting that even if Friedman wasn't always prescient, he was always fundamentally right.Even if you are an unreconstructed disciple of everything Friedman advocated, however, you wont find this book of much value. In fact, if you are relatively cognizant of Friedman's ideas, if you've read any of his own writings, I suspect you'll find Ebenstein's explications of them childish, vague, and undependable.Ebenstein's writing style is pedestrian, repetitive, and disjointed; the author is never quite certain of whether he wants to write a classic character study, a plain narrative of Friedman's personal life, or a 'simple' explanation of Friedman's thought. The only consistency Ebenstein achieves is his hagiographical tone. Given the historical economic events of 2008, events which challenge not only the substance but also the morality of Friedman's ideas as pursued by his disciples in the Bush administration, a far deeper and more detached biography would be very much in order.