The Wisdom of Henry Hazlitt

The master economics teacher, the author of Economics in One Lesson, moves his readers to a deeper knowledge of a range of topics in this outstanding collection of essays.

In the late 1990s, Hans Sennholz carefully selected 30 of Hazlitt’s articles that appeared mostly in The Freeman but also other places, and compiled them into a single book under the title The Wisdom of Henry Hazlitt. Most of these articles have appeared in no other collection.

The book begins with a piece written at the end of his life: “Reflections at 70.” The next piece is a reflection on a book Hazlitt wrote when he was a very young man, a piece on the art of thinking. So here we have the “bookends” to an extraordinary life of thinking and writing.

The next section deals with the market economy, and here the editor has selected Hazlitt’s shortest pieces on a variety of topics, from private ownership to prices to income distribution. Next, he deals with the enemies of the market economy. A large section follows that covers the welfare state, foreign aid and other issues of development economics. The book ends with an inspiring selection about the future of the battle between capitalism and planning.

While this is not a systematic treatise, it provides an outstanding overview of all of Hazlitt’s writings in this area. The choices reflect Sennholz’s own interests but those are also the interests of anyone who appreciates Hazlitt’s contribution to communicating economic truth to all people. The collection is indeed well named!