by Donald J. Boudreaux
The American Institute for Economic Research
From July 1997 until August 2001 I was president of the Foundation for Economic Education (“FEE”). Founded in 1946 by Leonard Read (1898-1983), FEE joined with AIER (founded in 1933) in pioneering, during post-war America, the nourishment and spread of the ideas and ideals of classical liberalism.
My admiration for Read began twenty years before I became FEE’s president. In 1977, as a college sophomore, I was introduced to his 1958 essay “I, Pencil.” The message was a thunderclap. To this day, Read’s classic essay remains one of my favorites of all things ever written.
But taking over FEE’s reins from the retiring Hans Sennholz inspired me to dive more deeply into Read’s other, voluminous writings. One theme that runs through these works is humility.