F.A. Harper was a leader in the libertarian movement from the 1950s and onward. Here is his early manifesto (1949), in which he reveals a sophisticated understanding of free markets and freedom but had not yet, as he later did, come around completely to the Rothbardian view on the possibilities of society without the state. Nonetheless, this is an important and beautiful book that shows Harper for the intellectual powerhouse that he truly was.
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Floyd Arthur “Baldy” Harper (1905–1973) was a Cornell University professor and member of the Mont Pelerin Society. He helped start up the Foundation for Economic Education, codirected the William Volker Fund, and founded the Institute for Humane Studies. At Harper’s death, Murray Rothbard wrote, “Ever since he came to the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946 as its chief economist and theoretician, Baldy Harper, in a very real sense, has been the libertarian movement. For all these years, this gentle and lovable man, this wise and Socratic teacher, has been the heart and soul and nerve center of the libertarian cause.”
Read Rothbard’s memorial: Floyd Arthur ‘Baldy’ Harper, RIP.
FEE: 1949; Mises 2007
