Ralph Raico (; October 23, 1936 – December 13, 2016) was an American
libertarian historian of
European liberalism, and a professor of history at
Buffalo State College.
["Ralph Raico"]
The Independent Institute. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
Early life and education
Raico was from New York City,
["Ralph Raico"]
. Future of Freedom Foundation. Retrieved November 15, 2013. where he attended the
Bronx High School of Science
The Bronx High School of Science is a State school, public Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in the Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science ...
. Through the
Foundation for Economic Education
The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative, Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian economics, economic think tank. Founded in 1946 in New York City, FEE is now headquartere ...
, Raico and his classmate
George Reisman arranged to meet with economist
Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (; ; September 29, 1881 – October 10, 1973) was an Austrian-American political economist and philosopher of the Austrian school. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the social contributions of classical l ...
, who subsequently invited them to attend his graduate seminar on
Austrian economics at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
. There, he met fellow seminar attendee
Murray Rothbard, who befriended him. Rothbard and his friends including Raico, Reisman,
Ronald Hamowy
Ronald Hamowy (; April 17, 1937 – September 8, 2012) was a Canadian academic, known primarily for his contributions to political and social academic fields. At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus of intellectual history at the Uni ...
and
Robert Hessen formed a "self-conscious intellectual and activist salon" that they named the Circle
Bastiat.
[.]
In the mid-1950s, the Circle Bastiat also brought Raico into contact with novelist
Ayn Rand
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; , 1905March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which s ...
and her followers, informally known at the time as
The Collective.
Raico attended the first lectures about Rand's philosophy of
Objectivism.
[.] Eventually, relations between the two groups soured, leading to an incident in which the Circle parodied the Collective, performing a skit in which Raico played the part of Rand's protege
Nathaniel Branden
Nathaniel Branden (born Nathan Blumenthal; April 9, 1930 – December 3, 2014) was a Canadian Americans, Canadian–American psychotherapy, psychotherapist and writer known for his work in the psychology of self-esteem. A former associate ...
.
[.] By the summer of 1958, Rand and Rothbard had broken off all ties, and the groups stopped associating.
Raico received his B.A. from the
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...
,
[ and his Ph.D. from the ]University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
, where his adviser was Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992) was an Austrian-born British academic and philosopher. He is known for his contributions to political economy, political philosophy and intellectual history. Hayek shared the 1974 Nobe ...
.
Career
While at the University of Chicago, Raico founded ''The New Individualist Review'', a libertarian publication which first published in April 1961 and produced 17 issues until it ceased publication in 1968.[.] Raico and other graduate students comprised the editorial board. Its advisory board comprised Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992) was an Austrian-born British academic and philosopher. He is known for his contributions to political economy, political philosophy and intellectual history. Hayek shared the 1974 Nobe ...
, Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and ...
, and later George Stigler
George Joseph Stigler (; January 17, 1911 – December 1, 1991) was an American economist. He was the 1982 laureate in Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and is considered a key leader of the Chicago school of economics.
Early life and e ...
. In 1981, Friedman wrote that he believed the publication had "set an intellectual standard which has not yet, I believe, been matched by any of the more recent publications in the same philosophical tradition".[Riggenbach, Jeff (July 18, 2011)]
"The Journalism of Hamowy and Raico"
''Mises Daily'' Mises Institute. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
Raico later became senior editor of ''Inquiry
An inquiry (also spelled as enquiry in British English) is any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem. A theory of inquiry is an account of the various types of inquiry and a treatment of the ...
'' magazine. He was an associate editor of '' The Independent Review'', a journal published by The Independent Institute, and a senior fellow of the Mises Institute, which published his work on the history of liberty and the connection between war and the state.["Ralph Raico biography"]
. Mises Institute. Retrieved November 15, 2013. Raico translated Mises' book '' Liberalismus'' and various essays by Hayek into English.[
]
Death
Raico died on December 13, 2016, at the age of 80.
Publications
Books
* ''Gay Rights: A Libertarian Approach''. Libertarian Party (1975). .
* ''Classical Liberalism in the Twentieth Century''. Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University (1990). .
* ''Die Partei der Freiheit: Studien zur Geschichte des deutschen Liberalismus''. Introduction by Christian Watrin. Translated by Gabriele Bartel, Pia Weiss, and Jörg Guido Hülsmann. Lucius & Lucius (1999). . .
''Great Wars and Great Leaders: A Libertarian Rebuttal''.
Introduction by Robert Higgs. Auburn, Alabama: Mises Institute (2010) . .
* ''The Place of Religion in the Liberal Philosophy of Constant, Tocqueville, and Lord Acton''. (2010). . .
:: Book version of Raico's University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
dissertation.
* ''Classical Liberalism and the Austrian School''. Auburn, Alabama: Mises Institute (2012). . .
Book contributions
* "Classical Liberalism and the Austrian School." in ''The Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics'', edited by Peter J. Boettke. Edward Elgar Publishing (1988). . .
* Introduction to the 50th-anniversary edition of John T. Flynn's ''The Roosevelt Myth''. Fox & Wilkes (1998).. .
* "World War I: The Turning Point" and "Rethinking Churchill." in ''The Costs of War: America's Pyrrhic Victories'', edited by John V. Denson. Transaction Publishers (1999). .
See also
* List of Austrian-school economists
References
Works cited
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Raico's article archives at Mises.org
Raico book and paper archives at Mises.org
Bio
at Future of Freedom Foundation
Ralph Raico: Champion of Authentic Liberalism
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raico, Ralph
1936 births
2016 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American libertarians
American male non-fiction writers
American political writers
Buffalo State College faculty
City College of New York alumni
Historians from New York (state)
Libertarian historians
Libertarian theorists
Mises Institute people
Academics from New York City
University of Chicago alumni
Writers from New York City
Intellectual historians