Early Political Activism
During the 1930s, Luhnow became an active opponent of Kansas City's Pendergast political machine, and was exposed to libertarian thought through fellow reformer Loren Miller. Miller introduced Luhnow to intellectual heavyweights and public figures who shared the businessmen’s hostility to machine politics. Luhnow began reading F.A. Hayek's influential book The Road to Serfdom and developed into a classical liberal. As his familiarity with and commitment to liberal economic ideas grew, Luhnow began using more and more of his influence over his uncle's charitable fund to give sizable contributions to libertarian and conservative causes.
Read more about this topic: Harold Luhnow
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or political:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“There seems no reason why patriotism and narrowness should go together, or why intellectual fairmindedness should be confounded with political trimming, or why serviceable truth should keep cloistered because not partisan.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)