Customer Reviews

Milton Friedman: A Biography

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I approached this book with both a sense of excitement and apprehension; excitement because of the subject,and apprehension having been disappointed by Ebenstein's previous works on Hayek.

However, given the constraints of dealing at great length about every aspect of the life and works of Friedman in such a short work, this volume is very readable and provides an acceptable summary of the great man until someone provides a thoroughly researched and comprehensive work on Friedman, similar to Skidelsky on Keynes.

I finished the book in almost one sitting so it was gripping ...

This was not only a biography of Milton Friedman, but also a synopsis of many of his ideas. Reading books like this is always difficult because you can never keep track of all the names and places that are documented, but only come away with a general sense of what the subject did in his life. This book was no different to many others biographies that I have read.

Good points:

1. This book had a very nice synopsis of what happened during the Great Depression. MF's "A Monetary History of the United States" is, of course, the definitive work on that event, but in the event that one wants the Reader's Digest version, this book does that very well.

2. A decent synopsis of some of the fundamental differences between Keynesian economists and Monetarists was also included. It could have been a bit better, but it is good enough to be able to talk intelligently. At least we understood clearly the difference between Keynesians (Paul Krugman) and "supply siders" (Friedman, other conservative economists).

3. The author gives ample space to state the case for empirical verification of different Economic ideas, and demonstrated that there was a point before which people exhaustively tested their theories (rather than just putting together enough cute-sounding words and calling it "finished" from that point). It does seem that the author went overboard on stating this, but perhaps that was intentional.

4. Ebenstein clarifies the "Chile Scandal" surrounding Friedman. Many authors have talked up Friedman's influence on the events in Chile and have created a role for him that did not exist in those events. It turns out that Friedman did not engineer any government takeovers or act in any capacity as adviser other than in a very limited capacity.

Bad points:

1. There was not one single photo in this book about the many people to whom it referred. They were not essential, but might have been nice just the same.

2. I might like to have seen a time-line of MF's life. There were so many names and dates that it just became difficult to keep track of after the first 3rd of the book. A time-line would have served as a reminder or recapitulation.

3. The author disclosed that Friedman himself read/ edited many of the chapters. This arrangement could have led to any number of things. A) That MF would only cooperate if he was given final control over the contents of the books; B) That the author was a bit more fawning than needed in order to get MF's cooperation; C) That critiques of MF's methodology/ conclusions was muffled, and that there might have been some things that needed to be brought to the fore.

4. This point bears repeating: That the book just appeared a bit too fawning and didn't give a consideration to any criticism of MF that may have needed to be rebutted at length. Later the author did very briefly mention some disagreements of other economists with Friedman, but did not get into them at length. (Perhaps this would have required a graph.)

5. The prose was fairly easy to read, but a bit choppy in some places.

6. Friedman had all of these houses and took all these vacations, but who paid for this? I didn't want a full financial disclosure, but some financial details might have been nice. Like, say, Friedman's speaking fees for engagements. Or how much he made on at least some of his jobs (university salaries are public record and would not have been difficult to find). Not sure if this was deliberate or a mere oversight.

In sum, this is worth a second hand purchase.

A great read into the life of this fascinating man who was one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. It is tough to understate Friedman's influence, inside and out of economics: school vouchers, voluntary army, floating currencies, monetarist view of inflation, the death of Keynisianism. The book is also an excellent read for those interested in the history of economic thought and especially of the 'Chicago School'. Last but not least, the author gets the economics right, which is a rare feature in a book that delves into economics. That alone is worth four stars.

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 Newsweek
4. 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 Brown
Core Edge Image & Charisma Institute

I agree with many other reviewers of this book, the writing style in the beginning of the book is brutal. It's written poorly and actually is tough to take seriously as a biography. But... the book's author somehow starts to write with much more sophistication and style in describing Friedman's economic ideas and references. I guess that's where I've found value in the book, how Friedman saw his counterpart's economic ideas and books. In summary, skip the first third and move on to the main course of economics.

For several reasons this is not a very good book, the most important one being that the author cannot hide his admiration of Friedman. From the first to the last page, Milton Friedman is heralded as a great thinker, brilliant academic and heroic champion of the free market movement. Although he may well have been all that, the constant glorification quickly become tedious, and more importantly, reduces the credibility of the author.

Let me give a specific example. Milton Friedman has been much criticized for his decision to advice Chilean dictator Pinochet on economic matters. Although this issue is discussed in the book (albeit rather briefly), Ebenstein only makes mention of the existence of criticism, not of it's actual substance. Only Friedman's arguments on the issue (which in fact are less than persuasive) are discussed in some depth, with the predictable consequence that the reader wonders what is actually going on here.

The book is written in very pedestrian prose, with many repetitions, stunted sentences, and even frequent typos (the editors deserve some blame here too). Things become especially awkward when the author combines glorification and repetition, for example when he repeats 12 times in 5 pages the claim that Friedman established the "Chicago school of economics" largely by himself.

Despite the embarrassing reading, the book is still pretty informative. There is enough detail on Friedman's life and work to make it interesting. Friedman's economic insights are described somewhat superficially, but at least the author did not fall prey to the biographer's vice to write 600+ pages. These redeeming features means the book is still a worthwhile read for those who want to have a quick overview of what Friedman was about. For deep and balanced insights into the man's psychology or the controversies he sparked, one will have to look elsewhere.

I recommend "Milton Friedman: A Biography" to all readers, especially to young people who are looking for role models in economics and life in general. Many an economist found something, agreeable to them or not, that improved their academic lives at least just because they knew it, even if they did not know it well. Before Friedman free lunches were possible after all because economics was operating inside its production possibilities frontier (PPF). By pushing economics onto its PPF Friedman made free lunches disappear; the good thing is that the public good in the form of knowledge that Friedman's research program produced is so huge that economics shall have plenty of leftovers to chew on for some time to come. The prospective economist is better off even if all he/she reads of Friedman is "The Monetary History of the United States" (with Anna Jacobson Schwartz) and "The Methodology of Positive Economics". As Friedman points out in The Methodology of Economics "the process [of constructing hypotheses] must be discussed in psychological, not logical, categories; studied in autobiographies, not treatises on scientific method; and promoted by maxim and example, not syllogism or theorem" (p. 43). Thus, between the two books one learns how to identify problems and how to go about solving them. This biography is a valuable addition.

The evidence of Friedman's contributions to the general public is not hard to find and document. For example, sensible deregulation led to cheaper airplane tickets, which induced more flights to more places. The efficacy of volunteer armed forces as a component of an effective national defense is now too commonsensical to restate here. Perhaps Arthur Schopenhauer was correct after all that "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

What is very interesting about this book - Milton Friedman: A biography - are insights about the person behind the public good many people around the world come to know just as Friedman. Behind that person were the individual, family, proximate cause, and initial conditions all of which made possible the growth of ideas we associate with Professor Friedman. In the world of Friedmans ideas, both as public and private, are anchored in individual freedom and choice, which only a capitalist nature nurtures. That one individual could have done so much so long (9 decades) is worth volumes in itself; that the intellectual laborer remained sane, rather than vane, about his accomplishments and the fame they conferred is another remarkable quality, and an interesting part of Mr. Ebenstein's book.

To say Friedman made a significant scholarly contribution to economics is a positive (testable) statement. If even only half of what Lanny Ebenstein writes about Friedman the person is true, then the author/philosopher Jean Paul was surely incorrect in his assertion that " Fine minds are seldom fine souls". In Friedman's case a good soul and an even better mind were joint-products (complements). I learned all of that and more from this book, so can anyone. A good reading, indeed!

Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465

A previous reviewer is too kind when he writes that this book "veers a bit toward hagiography." It is a drive straight down the hagiography highway from beginning to end. The quality of Friedman's intellectual achievements is asserted but not supported, and the episodes of his life are strung together with no more narrative development than stops on a bus route. Nary a critical word is uttered. Several sections are maddeningly repetitive. We never have a sense that we are inside Friedman's mind, we are never given a chance to engage with one of the 20th Century's great iconoclasts, only exhorted to worship and admire.

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.

the only friedman kindle bio. waste of money due to poor writing. 5 word sentences. agonizing. poor depiction of a brilliant man. high school book report quality. reads like this review. 2 stars only because even stagnant putrid water is good in a desert.