A journalist’s endorsement massively raised the classical liberal network’s confidence

Evidence

His enthusiasm was shared, with only limited qualifi cations, across the transatlantic network of classical liberals with whom Hayek maintained active communication during his time at the London School of Economics. To have a journalist of Lippmann’s stature parroting and, still more remarkably, helping form their views was an extraordinary event. As Charles Beard noted in his epistolary skewering that autumn, it “is a rare fi nd for them to catch a Lippmann and they are tickled to death, like a child with new boots.” — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 164

Categorization

• XREF: Consonant with the general sociology of how small intellectual networks gain legitimacy when a prestigious outsider validates them — connects to network theory of idea diffusion (Milgrom, social capital notes).