The Most Important Thinker You've Never Heard Of
Sunday's Booknotes interview with Mark Edmundson, author of Why Read? ended with this exchange, which is even more striking in the context of the long, erudite interview and Edmundson's thesis that students need (in the publisher's words) a "challenging, life-altering liberal arts education."
LAMB: Here's an older book spoken about by Milton Friedman, on the other side.
EDMUNDSON: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MILTON FRIEDMAN, AUTHOR AND ECONOMIST: It's a book well worth reading by anybody, because it's a very subtle analysis of why, how it is that well-meaning people who intend only to improve the lot of their fellows, tend to favor courses of action which have exactly the opposite effect.
I think in my, from my point of view, the most interesting chapter in that book is one labeled, why the worst rise to the top.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAMB: He's talking about "Road to Serfdom" - Hayek - a bible for people on the conservative political side.
EDMUNDSON: I'm glad to know about it. Until this moment, I've heard nothing about it. But I will write it down and give it a look.
For an introduction to Hayek's work, and the increased recognition of its importance, see my Boston Globe article here. The new issue of Reason has an interview with Hayek biographer Bruce Caldwell, which is not yet online.