Milton Friedman's social philosophy invoked an optimistic language, ideological coherence, disciplinary prestige, and policy imagination that suited the needs of this new age. Combating repre sen ta tions of the market as a volatile engine that required both veneration and constraint, he reimagined it as an infi nite resource that yielded social benefi ts in proportion to the extent it was set free. Although Friedman often failed to convert the public to his specifi c views, over time his rhetorical audacity succeeded in restructuring the terms of pop u lar debate.

Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, loc. 563