The Freeman is a monthly journal; it is the principal publication of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), located in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. FEE was founded shortly after the end of World War II in 1946 by Leonard E. Read, who served as its president until his death in 1983.

The Foundation was the first organization established after the war to present the principles of free markets, limited government, private property, and the freedom philosophy and at the same time to oppose the many government interventionist programs introduced during the 1930s, especially under Roosevelt's New Deal, and which had multiplied during World War II.

During FEE's early years, it published miscellaneous releases, pamphlets, and booklets, all dealing with some aspect of the freedom philosophy. In 1955, FEE introduced a quarterly, Ideas on Liberty, which in January 1956 was merged with The Freeman, a bi-weekly free-market oriented news magazine which had been published in New York City since 1950. As the market for free market journals was limited in the 1950s, it ran into financial problems and in 1956 was taken over by FEE, an educational, tax-exempt Foundation. At the time of its take-over, it was transformed from a bi-weekly into a monthly titled The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty.

The editors of The Freeman (1950-1955) had included others Henry Hazlitt and John Chamberlain, among others. Hazlitt, an economic journalist, had been one of FEE's founders and his articles continued to appear regularly in The Freeman after its take-over by FEE. John Chamberlain became FEE's regular book reviewer and his reviews appeared in The Freeman until his death in 1995. Leonard Read, FEE's President, was also a regular contributor, as was FEE's economic adviser, the noted Austrian School economist, Ludwig von Mises.

FEE's Freeman is still being published regularly. During its almost almost half century of life it has published articles by economists, businessmen, professors, teachers, statesmen (domestic and foreign), students, housewives, free-lance writers, and budding libertarians. Many of its authors have gone on to become noted authors, teachers, and founders of other libertarian organizations. It continues to discuss current economic and governmental issues from the same pro-private property, free market, limited government, libertarian philosophy which sparked the founding of FEE and all its publications. Ronald Reagan was photographed reading The Freeman on an airplane in January 1981 when he was running for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.

The current editor of The Freeman since 1997 is Sheldon Richman. The writers whose columns appear regularly in The Freeman include such libertarians as Walter Williams, Thomas Szasz, Donald J. Boudreaux, Burton Folsom, Jr., Charles W. Baird, Stephen Davies, Russell Roberts, Robert Higgs, and James A. Dorn.

History of publications called The Freeman

The Freeman has been a popular magazine name and FEE's Freeman had predecessors. There was a Freeman magazine published in the U.S. shortly after the Civil War. Albert Jay Nock, a noted literary figure and author, edited a magazine called The Freeman in the early 1920s. The Henry George School published a Freeman magazine during World War II. The immediate predecessor of FEE's The Freeman (1956-present), however, was the bi-weekly New York City-published news magazine mentioned above.