Milton Friedman was born on July 31, 1912 in Brooklyn, NY. He was an economist,
statistician, professor of monetary economics at the University of Chicago, a Nobel
Laurate (1976), and the author of research on consumption analysis, monetary history
and theory, and stabilization policy. He has written and co-written numerous
professional academic articles and books as well as several for general audiences.
Free to Choose: A Personal Statement was co-written with Rose Friedman in 1980.
It was written to accompany the ten shows put together for a Public Broadcast Series
(PBS) of the same name. The book was on the U.S. best sellers list for five weeks.
Wikipedia summarizes the book by saying that it ". . . maintains that the free market
works best for all members of society, provides examples of how the free market
engenders prosperity, and maintains that it can solve problems where other approaches
have failed." The Chicago Sun Times called it an "excellent book . . . This reviewer has
never read a more straightforward and simple statement of the present ills facing
our society and what we as citizens in a democracy must do about them."