2023-11-15
59 分钟Jennifer Burns is a professor of history at Stanford who works at the intersection of intellectual, political, and cultural history. She’s written two biographies Tyler highly recommends: her 2009 book, Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right and her latest, Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative, provides a nuanced look into the influential economist and public intellectual. Tyler and Jennifer start by discussing how her new portrait of Friedman caused her to reassess him, his lasting impact in statistics, whether he was too dogmatic, his shift from academic to public intellectual, the problem with Two Lucky People, what Friedman’s courtship of Rose Friedman was like, how Milton’s family influenced him, why Friedman opposed Hayek’s courtesy appointment at the University of Chicago, Friedman’s attitudes toward friendship, his relationship to fiction and the arts, and the prospects for his intellectual legacy. Next, they discuss Jennifer’s previous work on Ayn Rand, including whether Rand was a good screenwriter, which is the best of her novels, what to make of the sex scenes in Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, how Rand and Mises got along, and why there’s so few successful businesswomen depicted in American fiction. They also delve into why fiction seems so much more important for the American left than it is for the right, what’s driving the decline of the American conservative intellectual condition, what she will do next, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded August 30th, 2023. Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Jennifer on X Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.
Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between academic ideas and real world problems.
Learn more@mercatus.org dot for a full transcript of every conversation, enhanced with helpful links, visit conversationswithtyler.com.
hello, everyone, and welcome back to conversations with Tyler.
Today I'm honored to be talking with Jennifer Burns, who is a history professor at Stanford University.
She has a new book out which I just loved.
It is called Milton the last conservative.
And her earlier book I also like very much, that is goddess of the market, Ayn Rand and the american right.
Jennifer, welcome.
Thanks so much for having me.
I'm really looking forward to our conversation.
There's so much Milton Friedman one can read.
There's a reasonable amount of him on YouTube.
Overall, how did writing this book cause you to reassess Friedman?
What's the delta?
That's a great question.
I came in really interested in him as the public figure, the youtuber, as it were.
And over time, I got more interested in him as the economist.
So I think I came to understand how much that public freedman was the tip of the iceberg on just a much bigger base of inquiry, research thinking, not just in economics, but in many dimensions of economics.
So I think that was one thing I hadn't fully appreciated, Friedman, the economist.
And then I would think as time went on, one thing I came more to appreciate was the way he had both a very consistent message and some change and development in his thought.