The Public Intellectual as Economist: The Case of Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993)

Abstract:     
Henry Hazlitt was a unique public intellectual, who strove to not only to enlighten the general public with his writings, speeches, and appearances on TV and radio, but sought to contribute to the specialized disciplines of economics and philosophy. The evidence supporting my conjecture that Hazlitt occupied a unique position in mid-20th century intellectual life in the US as a public intellectual attempting to contribute to scientific economics consists of not just pointing to his prominent position in the world of journalism – both as a literary critic and more importantly as an economist – but more importantly for our purposes to the attention his written work commanded in the specialized professional journals in economics and philosophy, as well as the active correspondence he engaged in throughout his life.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 49

Keywords: Hazlitt, Scholarship, Public Intellectuals

JEL Classification: A10, A20, B31, B52

working papers series