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From weight watchers to state watchers: Towards a narrative of liberalism

A review essay on: Alan S. Kahan. Mind vs. Money: The War between Intellectuals and Capitalism. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. 2010

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Abstract

Alan Kahan’s Mind vs. Money: The War between Intellectuals and Capitalism (Transaction Publishers, 2010) treats intellectuals as a class and tells of intellectuals’ yearning to play the role of cleric and aristocrat. Kahan says that intellectuals are necessarily alienated from “capitalism.” In this essay, I discuss Kahan’s erudite and insightful—though sometimes exasperating—work, and I take the opportunity to develop some ideas on the topic, ideas in line with Hayek’s thought.

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Acknowledgments

I thank the Mercatus Center at George Mason University for support on a project entitled “Diagnosing Statism.” For valuable comments, I thank Niclas Berggren, Jason Briggeman, Tyler Cowen, Brandon Lucas, and John Majewski.

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Correspondence to Daniel B. Klein.

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Klein, D.B. From weight watchers to state watchers: Towards a narrative of liberalism. Rev Austrian Econ 23, 403–410 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11138-010-0117-1

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