Edmund A. Opitz

Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson may be the most popular economics text ever written. It has sold more than a million copies in its numerous editions, and has been translated into all the major European languages. Hazlitt has one of the keenest economic minds around, but he's really a philosopher, one of whose specialties happens to be economics. His first two books, written before he was out of his 20's, dealt with the workings of the mind. His volume on ethics, written when he was nearly 70, is a superb exposition of utilitarian theory. He has authored a major work on constitutional theory, and produced a novel whose dialogue sparkles with sound economic teachings. Literary criticism is the subject of another volume. He has edited several books and contributed to many symposia. When H. L. Mencken retired from The American Mercuy in 1933 he chose Hazlitt as his successor. A multi-faceted mind indeed, and a true polymath!

It was Hazlitt's good fortune -- and ours -- that he never took a college course in economics. Thus, he became a lifelong student of economics, and not just another academic "economist." He read voraciously, beginning in his early years, in the fields of history, literature, and philosophy. His views on the nature of man and society were derived mainly from those great Victorians, T. H. Huxley, and Herbert Spencer.

It was another and quite different Englishman, Philip H. Wicksteed, who inspired Hazlitt's lifelong interest in economics. Wicksteed was a celebrated London clergyman, Martineau's successor in 1874 at Little Portland Street Chapel, a medievalist and Dante scholar with a normal scholar's interest in economics. His huge tome entitled The Common Sense of Political Economy was published in 1910. It was the young Hazlitt's first lesson in marginal utility theory, a lesson which was never lost, and which grew over the years as Hazlitt pondered the works of Ludwig von Mises. It was Hazlitt's 1938 review of Mises' Socialism in The New York Times that first brought the Mises name before a fairly large audience. It would be gratifying to report that Mises, from then on, became the economist's economist; the truth is, however, that the Misesians even today are far outnumbered by the Keynesians and the Marxists.

And there's more. In 1959 Hazlitt took Keynes' General Theory apart, almost line by line, and demolished Keynesianism with devastating logic. What was true in Keynes' book was not new, he showed, and what was new was not true! Then there are his works on inflation, his critique of the welfare state, his book on poverty and wealth and, finally, an anthology of Stoic philosophy edited by Frances and Henry Hazlitt. Mrs. Hazlitt will be fondly remembered for her Concise Bible, well chosen passages from the King James skillfully knit together. I was honored to provide a dust jacket endorsement.

Hazlitt was a business and financial columnist for several New York newspapers during the twenties; during the next decade and beyond he was associated with The New York Times, specializing in matters relating to the economy. He wrote a weekly business and economics column in Newsweek from 1946 to 1966. Economics in One Lesson appeared in 1946 and continues to attract readers in increasing numbers. I was teaching two college courses in American government at this time and assigned Mr. Hazlitt's book as the best exposition of the only kind of economics compatible with the political ideals of the Declaration and the Constitution.

I was a faithful student of Hazlitt's Newsweek column from its early days; his 1949 review of Human Action persuaded me to become a student of Mises as well. It was at a Mises seminar in San Francisco in 1952 that I first encountered Hazlitt in person. Slim and aristocratic in bearing and manner, he gave off an air of precision which seemed to reflect the way he thought and wrote. But never did a man of so much scholarship wear his learning more lightly; he was affable, articulate, charming, and witty. He was companionable, appreciated a jest, and possessed a ready laugh. For many of us he is the ideal mentor.

It was inevitable that Adam Smith's invisible hand would arrange for the paths of Henry Hazlitt and Leonard Read to cross, and cross they did before the mid-Forties. An idea was developing in Leonard's mind for a novel kind of educational institution teaching sound ideas about government and the economy. Henry had suggestions and became a Founding Trustee of The Foundation for Economic Education -- the only Founding member still alive, at age 95.  The body is older, but Henry's mind is still at work, following world events and thinking about his next book. He has taught millions over the course of his long life; and he's a teacher still.

Notes

*  This tribute was written on the occasion of Mr. Hazlitt's 95th birthday.

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