Friedman’s scientifi c reputation and radical selfpresentation alone would have made him a formidable fi gure in the conservative intellectual world, but he multiplied his infl uence by combining these attributes with an extraordinarily inventive approach to public policy. The unorthodoxy of his perspective enabled him to apply a single set of analytic tools to generate a profusion of novel ideas, and he presented his readers with an abundance of explicit proposals that were clearly derived from and representative of a singular worldview. Over time and in combination, these qualities enabled him to shift the pa ram e ters of public debate.

Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, loc. 465