Very sad news: historian Ralph Raico has died. Ralph’s name is one of the first that I encountered when, as an 18-year-old college student in the mid-1970s, I was introduced to classical liberal and libertarian literature. I eventually got to know Ralph personally. I unfailingly enjoyed his quick wit and penetrating intellect.
Alberto Mingardi remembers Ralph here. And David Henderson does so here.
Here is Sheldon Richman’s remembrance of Ralph. This 1983 video in Sheldon’s post gives a true and wonderful flavor of Ralph’s engaging lecture style, always accompanied by deep insight.
I also like this lecture that Ralph delivered in Sweden (sometime, I guess, in the mid to late 1980s):
Watching these videos brings back very fond memories of my being, as a student, in many audiences – often at events sponsored by the Institute for Humane Studies – for Ralph’s always-enlightening talks.
