I am sad to learn of the death of the great Milton Friedman. I was very honoured that he endorsed my book. The idea of asking him only came late. Certain other, far less significant people had been asked but, for one reason or another, most had not been able to oblige. Then - I forget who or why - someone had the idea of asking Milton Friedman. The contact was through Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute.

We were short of time and so we asked if he could make his comment quite soon, so we could use it for the first edition. The reply came back that Mr Friedman would not have time to read the book in time for first publication and he never endorsed a book without reading it from cover to cover. A friend in San Francisco who met Mr Friedman socially at that time reported back that he did not seem particularly interested.

So, the book came out with no mention of Milton Friedman at all. I gave up hope that we would get any comment from him. Then, out of the blue, came an email from Eamonn Butler with comments from Milton Friedman that I would never have dared dream of. I was thrilled and luckily the hardback was selling well enough that there were several re-prints. So the dustjacket was re-designed to incorporate just a few of his kind remarks. And I had the pleasure of knowing that this remarkable and highly influential man had read The Welfare State We're In from cover to cover.

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in General

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