Ralph Raico

Ralph Raico

Raico delivering a lecture at the Ludwig von Mises Institute
Born 1936 (age 79–80)
New York City
Academic background
Alma mater University of Chicago
Influences Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises
Academic work
Main interests Libertarianism

Ralph Raico (/ˈreɪkoʊ/) is an American libertarian historian of European liberalism.[1] He was formerly a professor of history at Buffalo State College.[2]

Early life and education

Raico is from New York City,[3] where he attended The Bronx High School of Science. Through the Foundation for Economic Education, Raico and his classmate George Reisman arranged to meet with economist Ludwig von Mises, who subsequently invited them to attend his graduate seminar on Austrian economics at New York University.[4] There he met fellow seminar attendee Murray Rothbard, who befriended him.[5][6] Rothbard and his friends Raico, Reisman, Ronald Hamowy, and Robert Hessen formed a "self-conscious intellectual and activist salon" they named the "Circle Bastiat".[7][8]

In the mid-1950s, the Circle Bastiat also brought Raico into contact with novelist Ayn Rand and her followers, informally known at the time as "The Collective".[8][9] Raico attended the first lectures about Rand's philosophy of Objectivism.[10] 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.[11] By the summer of 1958 Rand and Rothbard had broken off all ties, and the groups stopped associating.[10][11]

Raico received his B.A. from the City College of New York[3] and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where his adviser was Friedrich Hayek.[12]

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.[13] Raico and other graduate students comprised the editorial board. Hayek and Milton Friedman and later, economist George Stigler, were on the advisory board. 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."[13][14]

Raico later became senior editor of Inquiry magazine. He is currently an associate editor of The Independent Review, a journal published by The Independent Institute,[2] and a senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, which has published his work on the history of liberty and the connection between war and the state.[15] Raico translated Mises' book, Liberalismus and various essays by Friedrich Hayek into English.[2]

Publications

See also

References

  1. ↑ Doherty 2007, pp. 32, 34
  2. 1 2 3 Ralph Raico profile, The Independent Institute website, accessed November 15, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Ralph Raico biography at Future of Freedom Foundation website, accessed November 15, 2013.
  4. ↑ Reisman 1996, p. xliii
  5. ↑ Doherty 2007, pp. 249–50
  6. ↑ Casey 2010, p. 10
  7. ↑ Doherty 2007, p. 251
  8. 1 2 Reisman 1996, p. xliv
  9. ↑ Heller 2009, p. 251
  10. 1 2 Reisman 1996, p. xlvi
  11. 1 2 Heller 2009, p. 299
  12. ↑ Hamowy 1999, p. 339
  13. 1 2 Hamowy 1999, pp. 339–46
  14. ↑ See also: Jeff Riggenbach, The Journalism of Hamowy and Raico, "Mises Daily", Ludwig von Mises Institute, July 18, 2011.
  15. ↑ Ralph Raico biography at Ludwig von Mises Institute website, accessed November 15, 2013.
  16. ↑ OCLC 4812933

Works cited

External links

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