The Chicago faculty instilled price-system conservatism into its graduate students

Evidence

Chicago also developed a reputation for inculcating a conservative approach to po liti cal economy among its graduate students, who included Milton Friedman, George Stigler, and Aaron Director. Friedman later recalled that the “core” of his and his wife Rose’s conservatism was attributable to the “common infl uence” of their time in the department. Its intellectual atmosphere, he indicated, led students to admire the “strength of the price system” and to feel “rather negative towards socialism, socialist economics.” Chicago seemed to be the last redoubt of economic sentiments that the rest of the profession was fast leaving behind. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 89

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: the contrarian image of the famously pro-market Chicago school as a ‘last redoubt’ — intellectually marginal in the 1930s rather than dominant — inverts the usual story of its later triumph.
• XREF: connects to: Chicago economics converted socialist students into market advocates despite no explicit proselytizing — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 117; Chicago’s postwar economics department harbored socialist and institutionalist factions — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 742; Chicago’s graduate economics rigor came largely from Viner, not Knight — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 98 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Chicago economics converted socialist students into market advocates despite no explicit proselytizing #expands (0.85) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 117
• Chicago economists led opposition to the New Deal and Keynesian doctrine #expands (0.80) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 88
• Chicago’s postwar economics department harbored socialist and institutionalist factions #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 742
• Chicago economic theory was to displace fair-conduct rules as the basis for antitrust decisions #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1147
• Chicago’s graduate economics rigor came largely from Viner, not Knight #qualifies (0.70) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 98