Milton Friedman: A Biography [Hardcover]

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.