In a September 4 post titled “The Isolated Milton Friedman,” I quoted two paragraphs from Michael Hirsh, Capital Offense: How America’s Wise Men Turned America’s Future Over to Wall Street. I won’t quote the whole passage again.
Here’s a passage that struck me as strange, given what a warm and welcoming person Milton was:
For most of those years of the Cold War, he remained the leader of a maverick insurgency, isolated and condemned even on the Chicago campus as the 1960s counterculture grew. There were times when no one would eat with him in the faculty dining room. (Italics added.)
My commentary was on something else, but, still, I should have noted that this passage struck me as strange.
A long time friend, Christopher Jehn (we’ve been friends since meeting each other at Richard Thaler’s house in 1977), sent me the following email and has given me permission to quote him:
I wound up reading your Sept. 4 post on Friedman’s “isolation.” Your post and especially the quote from Hirsh didn’t ring true. Indeed Hirsh (and his references) sounds almost delusional. Recall I was a graduate student at Chicago from 1965 to 1970. I do not remember any discussion, none, among grad students or between us and faculty, consistent with this story. Odd.
It is odd. I wonder where Hirsh got his information.
READER COMMENTS
Michael Hirsh
Sep 26 2024 at 9:09pm
My sources were Friedman himself, Gary Becker and other members of the faculty of that period.
David Henderson
Sep 27 2024 at 10:54am
Thank you.
Thomas L Hutcheson
Sep 28 2024 at 8:13am
Was this a consequence of Friedman’s xenophobic ideas on immigration?
Craig
Sep 26 2024 at 9:29pm
As a kid in the mid-80s I went to the torch of the Sttaue of Liberty. Wow, fantastic! Evem remember raising money to help pay for 1980s restoration. Later in 2000s I went on Circle Line. Even as a resident of NY metro area I did touristy things like that. Circle Line of course passes Statue of Liberty as it makes its way south down the Hudson River before turning to go up the East River and I heard the announcer discuss how the torch was closed in 1986.
Surely that was wrong, so after the cruise I spoke to him and said, “You said 1986, but I remember going up there.” And he said, “No, I didn’t say 1986, I said 1916” and he recounted Black Tom and WW1 German saboteurs setting off an enormous explosion that damaged the arm of the Statue of Liberty. The torch has been closed to the public since.
I’d swear to you I waa there, but it apparently is a false memory.
Robert EV
Oct 3 2024 at 12:00pm
In 1984 the original torch was removed, and after a tour of the country eventually placed in its own museum in the pedestal. Perhaps, if your memory is accurate, it’s from after the torch had been placed in the museum. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/13/nyregion/statue-of-liberty-torch-ar-ul.html