Foundation for Economic Education

"In 1946 Leonard [Read] had raised the money, set up the Foundation for Economic Edu­cation here at Irvington, [New York] and invited me to become one of his original trustees and officers. ... Another effect of Leonard’s initiative soon followed. Other libertarian foundations were set up in emulation. ... FEE opened its doors on March 16, 1946. Most of the spring and summer was spent in the library, as reno­vation continued on the main building."

"FEE's mission is inspire, educate, and connect young adults with the economic, ethical, and legal principles of a free society."

"Think of Leonard Read, the late founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, who — after meeting my husband and reading all of his books — gave students as well as teachers the opportunity to learn about individual freedom and the free market. Out of his foundation came great men like Baldy Harper, who founded the Institute for Humane Studies, and George Roche, who is now president of Hillsdale College ..."

"Ever since he came to the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946 as its chief economist and theoretician, Baldy Harper, in a very real sense, has been the libertarian movement. ... And so Baldy simply set out, in his quiet and gentle way, to create a body of students and followers. In those early days at FEE, for example, almost every staff member had been brought into the movement by Baldy: W.M. Curtiss, Paul Poirot, Ivan Bierly, Ellis Lamborn, all students of Baldy at Cornell."

"In 1946, former Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce General Manager Leonard E. Read established the Foundation for Economic Education and resolved to make Bastiat's work better known. He persuaded economics scholar Dean Russell to prepare a new translation of The Law. Over the years, it has sold several hundred thousand copies."

"In 1946, ... Harper left the academy and joined the libertarian Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) ... While at FEE, Harper produced a number of significant works. In 1951, FEE published Harper's powerful antiwar pamphlet, In Search of Peace ... In his 1957 monograph, Why Wages Rise, Harper lucidly explained the various causes of the gains in labor productivity that enable the growth of wages ... Harper's most remarkable work, however, was his earlier book, Liberty: A Path to Its Recovery, published by FEE in 1949, in which he laid out his comprehensive, natural law-tinged libertarian philosophy."

"One set of writings impressed me in particular. A man named Leonard Read had organized a Foundation at Irvington-on-Hudson in New York. ... The Foundation ... was issuing a series of tracts, which, in simple, understandable terms spelled out logical and scientific reasons why private enterprise is superior to a centrally controlled system."

"At the Foundation for Economic Education in the mid-1980s, she served as editorial director of the book publishing program and as an editor of its venerable monthly magazine, The Freeman."

"Around 1944, the National Association of Manufacturers sent Mises to California where he delivered some lectures. He was invited to a barbecue at the home of tall, trim Leonard E. Read, General Manager of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. Two years later, Read established the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), a think tank for liberty, and Henry Hazlitt persuaded him to retain Mises as an advisor, author and lecturer."

"Leonard E. Read ... is best known for originating the oldest existing free-market nonprofit in the world, the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). ... In 1946, he acquired property in Irvington-on-Hudson, a suburb of New York City, and he set up FEE. It was to be an organization that would inform people about the consequences of government meddling. By now Read, 47, was a firm believer that government should go no further than protecting everyone equally against aggression, both domestic and foreign. He also believed that, in addition to pointing out the perils of socialism, FEE should present 'the positive free market alternative.'"

"In 1946, Read formed the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) ... Murray Rothbard has often been published by FEE. ... FEE paid Ludwig von Mises's salary at New York University. ... In 34 years, the foundation's influence has reached all over the world. FEE has given over 250 seminars in 22 foreign countries. Read has spoken at most of them. ... Centers modeled after FEE have sprung up by the hundreds all over the world. ... In an interview in the September 1964 issue of Fortune, [Paulo Ayres] named FEE as the reason for the [1964 Brazilian] revolution."

"Throughout this country, throughout the world there is 'activity of soul' underway that would never have been undertaken but for the work and the inspiration of Leonard Read and the Foundation for Economic Education. ... probably the most important part ... will come to light only in the decades and centuries ahead—and much of it will be done by people who will never have heard of this foundation and will have no awareness that the activity ... is the last link in a long chain that goes back to something that was started by this foundation in the middle of the twentieth century."

"In coming years, I suspect that FEE will reassert its long-standing position as a kind of ideological mothership of the broader freedom movement."