From Rick Perlstein, over e-mail:
Milton Friedman's life is exactly what those of us interested in turning around American need to be studying. Every step along the way of his career he combined scholarship with an absolute commitment to spreading the truth as he saw it to as broad a popular audience as possible. I studied his papers at the Hoover Institute. He NEVER turned down a chance to speak to a popular audience. (He truly was, as Adam notes, a principled person--I'd love to know what he thought of the moral ruin of conservative intellectual life now--and he refused invitations to speak at any private schools during compulsory chapel: that violated his vision of liberty.) He was a good person. I contacted him to ask if I could interview him for my Goldwater book. He invited me into his (and his wife and coauthor's) home and was totally generous with his recollections.
His ideas brought misery to millions. All the more reason that his absolute determination to spread those ideas should inspire our efforts to turn back that misery. We need scholars as smart as him, and propagandists as bold as him. Combine them in the same person, and--damn!
