Milton Friedman and Economic Debate in the United States, 1932-1972, Volume 1

"This two-volume biographical work provides a foundational introduction to Friedman's role in several major economic debates that took place over four decades in the US, from 1932 through the end of 1972. The debates considered include both those that were largely carried out in the economic-research literature and those that primarily proceeded in the media or in policy forums. Nelson writes from a unique vantage point, as he draws from his own expertise in monetary economics, and has immersed himself in Friedman's Hoover Institution archives, allowing him unparalleled familiarity with Friedman's publications. Further, Nelson differentiates Friedman's ideas from those of his University of Chicago colleagues-particularly with those of George Stigler. And beyond, Nelson is able to refine and explicate the existing Friedman literature. Nelson provides an analytical narrative of Friedman's career from 1932 to 1972 (with the narrative organized primarily in terms of key economic debates), together with an exposition of Friedman's economic framework. The first volume consists of Chapters 1 to 10, covering Friedman's formative and early years through 1951, and Chapters 11 to 15 (the whole of the second volume), consider U.S. economic debate, and Friedman's participation in it, in the years from 1951 to 1972-the first two decades of Friedman's "monetarist period.""--