The 1958 Princeton meeting exposed the Society’s dependence on an erratic patron.

Evidence

The American meeting of the MPS took place on September 8–13, 1958, at Princeton. It was the largest conference in the history of the Society, with the most extensive program. … Worst of all, “from the platform he made slurring references to the foolish policies of the United States, hardly becoming one who was a guest in this country,” and “his economics seemed at variance with that professed in the aims of the Mont Pelerin Society.” Hayek and others blamed many of the failures of the meeting—the lack of publicity, the fact that the Western trip did not come off—on Hunold. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1472

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader MPS historiography (Mirowski, Burgin) on internal tensions between donors, intellectuals, and the Society’s aims.