A Note from the Compiler by Marc Doolittle

This book would have never gotten off the ground without Jeffrey Tucker’s bibliographical work on Henry Hazlitt. That work can be found in both book form (Henry Hazlitt: A Giant of Liberty) and on the Mises.org website. The genesis for this book started with that bibliography. I was browsing Hazlitt’s prodigious output throughout the years and tried to click on a few of his Newsweek editorials. The titles were beguiling: “Global Spending Forever?”; “Our Irresponsible Budget”; “Will Dollars Save the World?” Most of the titles I found myself gravitating toward would make perfect headlines in any newspaper, magazine, or blog today. For some reason the hyper-links were broken, obviously an oversight. But I just had to read them. I immediately went to Newsweek’s website and searched for back issues. Incredible—nothing online. It occurred to me just how spoiled I had become by Mises.org, where so much information is freely available at the click of a mouse. So after speaking with Jeffrey and concluding that these editorials were truly not available anywhere in print or online, I decided to track them down and in my own small way try to give something back to Mises. org and Henry Hazlitt.

The rest was a simple study in the division of labor: A young student I hired photocopied and scanned old editions of Newsweek on the weekends. I spent months trying to digitize the texts using character recognition software. When that failed miserably, I employed a team of entrepreneurial women and men in New Delhi to transcribe the editorials by hand. India, of all places! I hope Henry Hazlitt would find that as encouraging a sign of freedom as I do.

I would like to acknowledge all of the people who, in addition to the prolific pen of Henry Hazlitt, helped make this book possible. First of all to Lew Rockwell, the Mises Institute, and all of the amazing writers and educators there who have truly changed my life with knowledge. I would like to also thank in particular the following people: Jeffrey Tucker, Paul Milazzo, Trevor Hytmiah, Judy Thommesen, N. Joe Potts, John Russell and the University of Nevada/Reno Students of Liberty, Chad Parish for the cover, and Bhawna Seth, and all the great workers at IdesIndia.com. Most of all, thanks to my wife Sarah, daughters Ruby and Violet and son Walter. They give my life and work meaning.

So please, enjoy the marvelous introduction to these editorials by Paul Milazzo. Paul undertook the herculean task of putting these editorials in thematic and historical perspective and the introduction he has written stands by itself as a major addition to Hazlitt scholarship. Above all, enjoy these beautifully crafted pieces of literature by one of the premier economists and journalists of the twentieth century. Read from the hand of someone with the courage to speak truth to power throughout his entire professional career.

Marc Doolittle, MD

Chapel Hill, NC

2011