The Friedmans framed free-market revival as a historical tide still young in policy.

Evidence

In 1988 he and his wife Rose explained their threepart historical typology of Anglo- American po liti cal economy: fi rst, “The Rise of Laissez- Faire (the Adam Smith Tide),” running from the second half of the eighteenth century to the 1880s; second, “The Rise of the Welfare State (the Fabian Tide),” running from the 1880s to the postwar period; and fi nally, “The Resurgence of Free Markets (the Hayek Tide),” which was “approaching middle age” in public opinion and “still in its infancy” in its effects on public policy. All these “tides” provoked ideological countercurrents at precisely the moment their infl uence on public policy matured. “Promise tends to be utopian,” the Friedmans wrote. “Per for mance never is and therefore disappoints.” — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 551

Categorization

• SHARE: Send to someone following austerity/neoliberal historiography; the Friedmans’ own three-tide periodization of Anglo-American political economy is a compact prism.
• XREF: Connects to Kuhn’s paradigm shifts in economics, echoing prior chapters on MPS’s self-understanding as a knowledge community.