Free to Choose, by Milton and Rose Friedman

Milton Friedman was a prominent economist at Chicago University. In 1980 he sat down with his wife, Rose, and put together a book that would revolutionize the economic and social outlook of millions of people around the world. The book was "Free to Choose".

The basic message behind the book is that governments only get in the way of allowing people to choose the directions of their own lives. Government stifles individual initiative, thus it stifles the economy, innovation and progress. Lawrence B. Lindsey, in a review of the book in National Review argued that the ideas presented in "Free to Choose", created a fundamental change in the dynamic between liberals and conservatives.

Since the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929, the left had been the ones proposing legislative change. Conservatives had been in the forefront of opposition. The problem was that opposing change only allowed conservatives the ability to slow change, change that was eroding freedom for all Americans. The Book put change on the side of conservatives who suddenly were calling for their own legislative program, which included welfare reform, vouchers and more (many ideas first propounded by the Friedmans), changes that suddenly increased freedom and prosperity.

Thanks to the Friedmans' clear thinking and readable book, economic choice and the diminution of government has become a recognized and valid program in American politics.