Henry Hazlitt | |
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| Born | Henry Stuart Hazlitt (1894-11-28)November 28, 1894 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | July 9, 1993(1993-07-09) (aged 98) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Academic background | |
| Influences | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Economics Literary criticism Philosophy |
| School or tradition | Austrian School |
| Website | |
Henry Stuart Hazlitt (/ˈhæzlɪt/; November 28, 1894 – July 9, 1993) was an American journalist, economist, and philosopher known for his advocacy offree markets andclassical liberal principles. Over a career spanning more than seven decades, Hazlitt wrote extensively on business, economics, and public policy for prominent publications, includingThe Wall Street Journal,The Nation,The American Mercury,Newsweek, andThe New York Times.[1] He is best known for his 1946 book,Economics in One Lesson, a work grounded in theAustrian school of economics and its belief in the importance ofindividual liberty in economic decision-making.[2][3]
Hazlitt was a strong proponent ofhard currency and a vocal critic ofinflationary practices and government intervention in markets.[4][5] As a defender of free enterprise, he drew on the ideas of economists such asLudwig von Mises andFriedrich Hayek, helping popularize their theories for a general audience. Beyond economics, Hazlitt contributed to debates on philosophy and ethics, advocating for what he argued were the moral underpinnings of a free society. He also served as an editorial board member of the libertarian journalThe Freeman and was a founding member of theFoundation for Economic Education (FEE), one of the oldest free-market think tanks in the United States.[6]
Throughout his life, Hazlitt's writing and commentary significantly influenced public understanding of economic policy, and his works continue to inspire advocates of liberty and limited government around the world.[7][8][9]
Henry Hazlitt was born inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania and raised inBrooklyn, New York. He was acollateral descendant of the British essayistWilliam Hazlitt,[10] but grew up in relative poverty, his father having died when Hazlitt was an infant. His early heroes wereHerbert Spencer andWilliam James, and his first ambition was for an academic career in psychology and philosophy. He attended New York'sCity College, but left after only a short time to support his twice-widowed mother.[11]
As he later wrote, his short time at college "had a greater influence than may at first sight be supposed, not as much from the knowledge gained there, as from the increased consciousness of the knowledge which I still had to gain and the consequent ambition to attain it."[12]
Hazlitt started his career atThe Wall Street Journal as secretary to the managing editor when he was still a teenager, and his interest in the field of economics began while working there. His studies led him toThe Common Sense of Political Economy byPhilip Wicksteed which, he later said, was his first "tremendous influence" in the subject.[13] Hazlitt published his first book,Thinking as a Science at age 21.[14] He wrote the book because he realized—through his intense process of self-education—that it was more important to think clearly than to merely absorb information. As he explains in its opening pages:
Every man knows there are evils in the world which need setting right. Every man has pretty definite ideas as to what these evils are. But to most men one in particular stands out vividly. To some, in fact, this stands out with such startling vividness that they lose sight of other evils, or look upon them as the natural consequences of their own particular evil-in-chief.
To the Socialist this evil is the capitalistic system; to the prohibitionist it is intemperance; to the feminist it is the subjection of women; to the clergyman it is the decline of religion; to Andrew Carnegie it is war; to the staunch Republican it is the Democratic Party, and so on,ad infinitum.
I, too, have a pet little evil, to which in more passionate moments I am apt to attribute all the others. This evil is the neglect of thinking. And when I say thinking I mean real thinking, independent thinking, hard thinking.[14]
DuringWorld War I, he served in the Army Air Service. While residing in Brooklyn, he enlisted in New York City on February 11, 1918, and served with the Aviation Section of the Signal Enlisted Reserve Corps until July 9, 1918. He was then in Princeton, New Jersey, at the US School of Military Aeronautics until October 22, when he was sent to AS Camp Dick in Dallas, Texas, for a few weeks until November 7, and he was honorably discharged from service with the rank of private first class on December 12, 1918. He returned to New York, residing atWashington Square Park for many years.[15]
In the early 1920s, he was financial editor of TheNew York Evening Mail, and during this period, Hazlitt reported his understanding of economics was further refined by frequent discussions with former Harvard economics professorBenjamin Anderson, who was then working forChase National Bank in Manhattan. Later, when the publisherW. W. Norton suggested he write an official biography of their authorBertrand Russell, Hazlitt spent "a good deal of time," as he described it, with the famous philosopher.[12] Lord Russell "so admired the young journalist's talent" that he had agreed with Norton's proposal,[16] but the project ended after nearly two years of work when Russell declared his intention to write it on his own as an autobiography instead.[12]
During the interwar decades, a vibrant period in the history ofAmerican literature, Hazlitt served as literary editor ofThe New York Sun (1925–1929), and as literary editor of theleft-leaning journal,The Nation (1930–1933). In connection with his work forThe Nation, Hazlitt also editedA Practical Program for America (1932), a compilation ofGreat Depression policy considerations. After a series of public debates with socialistLouis Fischer, Hazlitt andThe Nation parted ways.[17]
In 1933, Hazlitt publishedThe Anatomy of Criticism, an extended "trialogue" examining the nature ofliterary criticism and appreciation, regarded by some to be an early refutation of literarydeconstruction.[16][18] In the same year, he becameH. L. Mencken's chosen successor as editor of the literary magazine,The American Mercury, which Mencken had founded withGeorge Jean Nathan,[19] as a result of which appointmentVanity Fair included Hazlitt among those hailed in its regular "Hall of Fame" photo feature.[10] Due to increasing differences with the publisher,Alfred A. Knopf Sr., he served in that role for only a brief time, but Mencken wrote that Hazlitt was the "only competent critic of the arts that I have heard of who was at the same time a competent economist, of practical as well as theoretical training," adding that he "is one of the few economists in human history who could really write."[a]
From 1934 to 1946, Hazlitt was the principal editorial writer on finance and economics forThe New York Times, writing both a signed weekly column and most of the unsigned editorials on economics, producing a considerable volume of work.[15] FollowingWorld War II, he came into conflict withArthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher ofThe New York Times, over the newly establishedBretton Woods system which created theWorld Bank and theInternational Monetary Fund. Hazlitt opposed the Bretton Woods agreement, primarily fearing the risk of inflation. After agreeing not to write on the topic, he looked for another venue for his work, deciding onNewsweek magazine, for which he wrote a signed column, "Business Tides", from 1946 to 1966.[16]
According to Hazlitt, the greatest influence on his writing in economics was the work ofLudwig von Mises, and he is credited with introducing the ideas of theAustrian School of economics to the English-speaking layman. In 1938, for example, he reviewed the recently published English translation of Mises's influential treatiseSocialism forThe New York Times, declaring it "a classic" and "the most devastating analysis of socialism yet penned."[20] After theJewish economist's emigration to the United States fromNational Socialist-dominated Europe in 1940, Hazlitt arranged for Mises to contribute editorials toThe New York Times, and helped to secure for Mises a teaching position atNew York University. Along with the efforts of his friends,Max Eastman andJohn Chamberlain, Hazlitt also helped introduceF. A. Hayek'sThe Road to Serfdom to the American reading public. His 1944 review inThe New York Times causedReader's Digest, where Eastman served as roving editor, to publish one of its trademark condensations, bringing the futureNobel laureate's work to a vast audience.[21]
Author Tom Malone contends that Hazlitt distinguished himself from other economists largely by his skill as a writer:
What set Hazlitt apart from other writers on economics was the incredible clarity of his writing and his ability to make the subject interesting to laymen. He did this by focusing on principles, using practical examples, and writing in a direct and conversational style. He also avoided the technical jargon and reliance on statistics that stud the writing of most economists—to the bane of most readers. When H. L. Mencken selected Hazlitt to succeed him as literary editor at the American Mercury, he called Hazlitt the "only competent critic of the arts that I have heard of who was at the same time a competent economist," as well as "one of the few economists in human history who could really write."[22]
Unlike many other writers of his generation from thepolitical right, Hazlitt never experienced a period when he was a socialist orcommunist, or a significant change in hisclassical liberal political views. He was the founding vice president of theFoundation for Economic Education, which also acquired his large personal library in the 1980s. Established byLeonard Read in 1946, FEE is considered to be the first "think tank" for free-market ideas. He was also one of the original members of the classical liberalMont Pelerin Society in 1947.[23]
With John Chamberlain (andSuzanne La Follette asmanaging editor), Hazlitt served as editor of the earlyfree market publicationThe Freeman from 1950 to 1952, and as sole editor-in-chief from 1952 to 1953, and its contributors during his tenure there included Hayek, Mises, andWilhelm Röpke, as well as the writersJames Burnham,John Dos Passos,Max Eastman,John T. Flynn,Frank Meyer,Raymond Moley,Morrie Ryskind, andGeorge Sokolsky.[24] Prior to his becoming editor,The Freeman had supported SenatorJoseph McCarthy in his conflict with PresidentHarry Truman on the issue ofcommunism, "undiscriminatingly" according to some critics, but upon becoming editor, Hazlitt changed the magazine's policy to one of support for President Truman.[25]
The Freeman is widely considered to be an important forerunner to the conservativeNational Review, founded byWilliam F. Buckley, Jr., which from the start included many of the same contributing editors.[26] Hazlitt himself was on the masthead ofNational Review, either as a contributing editor or, later, as contributor, from its inception in 1955 until his death in 1993. Differences existed between the journals:The Freeman under Hazlitt was moresecular and presented a wider range offoreign policy opinion than the laterNational Review.[25]
Even prior to her success withThe Fountainhead, the novelistAyn Rand was a friend of both Hazlitt and his wife, Frances, and Hazlitt introduced Rand to Mises, bringing together the two figures who would become most associated with the defense of purelaissez-faire capitalism.[27] The two became admirers of Hazlitt and of one another.[28]
Hazlitt became well known both through his articles and by frequently debating prominent politicians on the radio, including: Vice PresidentHenry A. Wallace, Secretary of StateDean Acheson, and U.S. SenatorsPaul Douglas andHubert H. Humphrey, the future Vice President.[15] In the early 1950s, he also occasionally appeared on theCBS Television current events programLongines Chronoscope, interviewing figures such as SenatorJoseph McCarthy and CongressmanFranklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., along with coeditorWilliam Bradford Huie.[29] At the invitation of philosopherSidney Hook, he was also a participating member of theAmerican Committee for Cultural Freedom in the 1950s.[30]
When he finally leftNewsweek in 1966, the magazine replaced Hazlitt with three university professors: "free-marketmonetaristMilton Friedman of theUniversity of Chicago, middle-of-the-roaderHenry Wallich ofYale, andKeynesianPaul A. Samuelson ofMIT."[15] His last published scholarly article appeared in the first volume ofThe Review of Austrian Economics (now,The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics) in 1987.
He was awarded an honorarydoctoral degree atUniversidad Francisco Marroquín inGuatemala.
About Hazlitt,Lew Rockwell wrote: "The times call for courage. The times call for hard work. But if the demands are high, it is because the stakes are even higher. They are nothing less than the future of liberty, which means the future of civilization."[31]: 48 Rockwell calledEconomics in One Lesson Hazlitt's "most enduring contribution."[32] With a million copies sold and available in ten languages,[33][34] it is considered a classic by several Americanconservative,free-market, andright-libertarian circles, such as at theMises Institute.[35]Ayn Rand called it a "magnificent job of theoretical exposition", while CongressmanRon Paul ranks it with the works ofFrédéric Bastiat andFriedrich Hayek.[36] Hayek himself praised the work, saying that "Henry Hazlitt's explanation of how a price system works is a true classic: timeless, correct, painlessly instructive."Nobel Prize laureateMilton Friedman described it as "a brilliant performance. It says precisely the things which need most saying and says them with rare courage and integrity. I know of no other modern book from which the intelligent layman can learn so much about the basic truths of economics in so short a time." In 1996,Laissez Faire Books issued a 50th anniversary edition with an introduction by publisher and presidential candidateSteve Forbes.[8][37] EconomistThomas Sowell's work has been described as following in the "Bastiat-Hazlitt tradition" of economic exposition.[38][39]
Another of Hazlitt's works,The Failure of the New Economics (1959), gives a detailed, chapter-by-chapter critique ofJohn Maynard Keynes's highly influential workThe General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.[40] With reference to Keynes's book, Hazlitt paraphrased a quote attributed toSamuel Johnson, that he was "unable to find in it a single doctrine that is both true and original. What is original in the book is not true; and what is true is not original."[41] Hazlitt also published three books on the subject of inflation, includingFrom Bretton Woods to World Inflation (1984), and two influential works on poverty,Man vs. The Welfare State (1969), andThe Conquest of Poverty (1973), thought by some[who?] to have anticipated the later work ofCharles Murray inLosing Ground.[42] Hazlitt's major work in philosophy, such asThe Foundations of Morality (1964), a treatise on ethics defendingutilitarianism, builds on the work ofDavid Hume andJohn Stuart Mill. Hazlitt's 1922 work,The Way to Will-Power was characterized by Lew Rockwell as "a defense of individual initiative against thedeterministic claims ofFreudianpsychoanalysis."[43] In contrast to many other thinkers on thepolitical right, Hazlitt was anagnostic with regard toreligious beliefs.[44]
InA New Constitution Now (1942), published duringFranklin D. Roosevelt's unprecedented third term asPresident of the United States, Hazlitt called for the replacement of the existing fixed-term presidential tenure in the United States with a more Anglo-European system of "cabinet" government, under which a head of government who had lost the confidence of the legislature or cabinet might be removed from office after a no-confidence vote in as few as 30 days.[45] In 1951, following Roosevelt's death in 1945, the United States enactedpresidential term limits. Hazlitt's 1951 novelThe Great Idea, reissued in 1966 asTime Will Run Back,[46] depicts rulers of acentrally-planned socialistdystopia discovering, amid the resulting economic chaos, the need to restore amarket pricing-system, private ownership of capital goods and competitive markets.
Henry was born to Stuart Clark and Bertha (Zauner) Hazlitt on November 28, 1894, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They resided at 819 North Broad Street in Philadelphia. The Hazlitt family was originally from England, although his paternal grandmother was from Ireland. His maternal grandparents were German immigrants. Henry's father, a clerk, died of diabetes when Henry was only five months old. His mother, Bertha, then married Frederick E. Piebes, who was engaged in manufacturing, and they resided in Brooklyn, where Henry was raised. Henry is listed on the 1905 New York state census as Henry S. Piebes, and he is listed on Frederick's will as Henry Hazlitt Piebes, Frederick's adopted son. His stepfather died in 1907, leaving Henry to support his mother and probably leading to the ambition that enabled him to work at theWall Street Journal while he was still a teenager.[47]
In 1929, Hazlitt married Valerie Earle, daughter of the noted photographer andVitagraph film directorWilliam P. S. Earle. They were married by thepacifist ministerJohn Haynes Holmes, but later divorced.[48] In 1936, he married Frances Kanes, author ofThe Concise Bible,[49] with whom he later collaborated to produce an anthology of theStoic philosophers,The Wisdom of the Stoics: Selections from Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius (1984). They were married until Frances' death in 1991.[50]
Hazlitt died at the age of 98 in Fairfield, Connecticut. At the time of his death, he resided in Wilton, Connecticut.
Hazlitt was a prolific writer,[51] authoring 25 works in his lifetime.
In 1981, PresidentRonald Reagan in his speech before theConservative Political Action Conference (or "CPAC") named Hazlitt as one of the "[i]ntellectual leaders" (along withFriedrich Hayek,Ludwig von Mises,Milton Friedman,Russell Kirk,James Burnham andFrank Meyer) who had "shaped so much of our thoughts..."[7]
Ludwig von Mises said at a dinner honoring Hazlitt: "In this age of the great struggle in favor of freedom and the social system in which men can live as free men, you are our leader. You have indefatigably fought against the step-by-step advance of the powers anxious to destroy everything that human civilization has created over a long period of centuries... . You are the economic conscience of our country and of our nation."[8]
On March 1, 2019, theYoung Americans for Liberty announced the launch of the Hazlitt Policy Center "to provide YAL's elected officials with modern legislation, facts, and strategies to give them the extra muscle they need to be effective liberty legislators."[52][9]
Books
Articles
InBasic Economics, Sowell follows in the Bastiat-Hazlitt tradition of educating the reader in the elementary principles of sound, free-market economics through criticisms and critiques of dozens of domestic and international economic policies, with historical examples ranging from the ancient world to the most recent government follies.
In 1959, Hazlitt came out withThe Failure of the "New Economics," an extraordinary line-by-line refutation of John Maynard Keynes's General Theory.
Now though I have analyzed Keynes's General Theory in the following pages theorem by theorem, chapter by chapter, and sometimes even sentence by sentence, to what to some readers may appear a tedious length, I have been unable to find in it a single important doctrine that is both true and original. What is original in the book is not true; and what is true is not original. In fact, as we shall find, even much that is fallacious in the book is not original, but can be found in a score of previous writers.
Also notable was his bookMan vs. the Welfare State which demonstrated that welfare promotes what it pretends to discourage. This was 20 years before Charles Murray'sLosing Ground showed that Hazlitt was right.; Murray, Charles,Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950–1980, Basic Books, 1984,ISBN 978-0465042319.
The Way to Will Power was a defense of individual initiative against the deterministic claims of Freudian psychoanalysis.
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