Lanny Ebenstein – författare

Born the son of immigrant parents, Milton Friedman went on to become a major figure during the resurgence of American conservatism. As an advisor to the Reagan administration and a widely read columnist, he played a vital role in shaping government policy and public opinion while he made headlines for his controversial views. Drawing on the author's unprecedented access to personal archives and to Friedman himself over the past decade, this is the first book to trace his life and development as an economic theorist. With a combination of intimate personal detail and fascinating exploration of economic theory, this is a revealing look at the man regarded by many as a hero of libertarianism and laissez-faire economics.

Friedrich August von Hayek, a reserved Austrian economist, died in 1992. Though largely unrecognized during his lifetime, he is today regarded as a visionary. In 1944, in the wake of the great Depression and with the political left on the ascendant, Hayek published his seminal work, "The Road to Serfdom", damning communism and socialism and extolling the free market as the best way around which to organize a society. At the time, it discredited him completely. Today, with the fall of the USSR and the effective end of the communist/socialist state, Hayek does indeed seem like a visionary. His theories have finally been embraced by mainstream economists and his work is extolled by world leaders. In this biography, Alan Ebenstein lifts the figure of Hayek from the shadows that surround him to take the true measure of his accomplishment. In looking at his life, Ebenstein also discusses his major works: "The Road to Serfdom", "The Constitution of Liberty" (1960), "Law, Legislation and Liberty" (1973-1979), and "The Fatal Conceit" (1988).

First published in 1991, The Greatest Happiness Principle traces the history of the theory of utility, starting with the Bible, and running through Plato, Aristotle, and Epicurus. It goes on to discuss the utilitarian theories of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill in detail, commenting on the latter’s view of the Christianity of his day and his optimal socialist society. The book argues that the key theory of utility is fundamentally concerned with happiness, stating that happiness has largely been left out of discussions of utility. It also goes on to argue that utility can be used as a moral theory, ultimately posing the question, what is happiness?