Burton W. Folsom, Jr.
Burton W. Folsom, Jr. (born 1947 in Nebraska) is an American historian and author who holds the Charles F. Kline chair in history and management at Hillsdale College. He received his BA from Indiana University in 1970, his M.A. from the University of Nebraska in 1973, and his doctorate in history from the University of Pittsburgh in 1976. Since 1988 he has edited Continuity: a Journal of History. He is a frequent columnist in the libertarian Freeman magazine and also contributes to other publications writing in favour of free market economics and limited government. He taught American history at Murray State University (KY) from 1976 to 1994.
Folsom has written several books that revise commonly held views about the role of capitalism in the social developments of the Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age. Folsom believes the term robber barons is a misnomer, and that many leaders in big business were constructive visionaries who benefited consumers and were integral to the development of industry.[1]
In his book The Myth of the Robber Barons, Folsom distinguishes between political entrepreneurs who ran inefficient businesses supported by government favors, and market entrepreneurs who succeeded by providing better and lower-cost products or services, usually while facing vigorous competition.
Folsom identifies the following people as market entrepreneurs:
He regards these people as political entrepreneurs:
- Robert Fulton: steamboat inventor and submarine designer.
- Thomas McKenney
- Henry Villard
- Warren Buffett[2]
Folsom is a former associate of the Free Enterprise Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, both free market think tanks, and a frequent guest of the libertarian organization Foundation for Economic Education.
His newest book is FDR Goes To War, co-authored with his wife Anita Folsom (Simon & Schuster, 2011).
[edit] Books by Folsom
- FDR Goes To War
- New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America (2008) ISBN 1416592229
- Urban Capitalists: Entrepreneurs and City Growth in Pennsylvania's Lackawanna and Lehigh Regions 1800-1920 (2005) ISBN 0940866943
- No More Free Markets or Free Beer: The Progressive Era in Nebraska, 1900-1924 (1999) ISBN 0739100149
- Empire Builders: How Michigan Entrepreneurs Helped Make America Great (1998) ISBN 1890394068
- The Myth of the Robber Barons (1993) ISBN 0963020315
- Entrepreneurs Vs. the State (1989) ISBN 0895265737
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ The Myth of the Robber Barons with Burt Folsom Freedom University: History Summer Seminar June 30, 2011. Retrieved July 22 2011
- ^ Dr. Folsom's talk to The National Conservative Student Conference, on Monday, August 4, 2008
