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Although American military might had crushed the armed forces of German National Socialism and Japanese Imperialism in World War II, many of their social and economic ideas survived unscathed. They were invading the United States through all channels of education and communication when Leonard E. Read decided to confront the ideological invasion. Together with a few friends and kindred souls he launched the Foundation for Economic Education, on March 7, 1946, just a few months after the Japanese surrender.

Leonard Read had faced alien Marxian and Keynesian thought as the Manager of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the largest in the U.S. In numerous Chamber publications he had refuted the Marxian charges of labor exploitation and worker abuse and impoverishment, and rejected the Keynesian contention of capitalist instability and mass unemployment. As the head of a new Foundation the sole purpose of which was information and education, Leonard Read would marshal new forces to join the battle of ideas.

For thirty-seven years at the helm of the Foundation for Economic Education Leonard Read was to labor in the world of thought and ideas on liberty. He was a born leader who, at a crucial moment in American history, rallied the demoralized and tired forces of individual freedom and the private property order. He created a think-tank which was to become the model for several other foundations in the United States and abroad.

Accompanied by members of his senior staff, Leonard Read used to travel millions of miles, giving speeches and lectures to eager audiences. He authored twenty-seven books, eighteen of which continue to be in print and be marketed by the Foundation. A skillful biography of Leonard E. Read: Philosopher of Freedom was penned by Mary Sennholz.

L.E.R. books in print:

• Accent on the Right
• Anything That's Peaceful
• Castles in the Air
• Deeper Than You Think
• To Free or Freeze
• The Freedom Freeway
• Government: An Ideal Concept
• Having My Way
• How Do We Know?
• Let Freedom Reign
• The Love of Liberty
• Pattern for Revolt
• Seeds of Progress
• Talking to Myself
• Then Truth Will Out
• Vision
• Who's Listening?