Ralph Raico (/ˈreɪkoʊ/; October 23, 1936 – December 13, 2016) was an American libertarian historian of European liberalism,[1] and a professor of history at Buffalo State College.
[5][6] Rothbard and his friends Raico, Reisman, Ronald Hamowy and Robert Hessen formed a "self-conscious intellectual and activist salon" they named the Circle Bastiat.
[7][8] In the mid-1950s, the Circle Bastiat also brought Raico into contact with novelist Ayn Rand and her followers, informally known at the time as The Collective.
[10] Eventually, relations between the two groups soured, leading to an incident in which the Circle parodied the Collective, performing a skit in which Raico played the part of Rand's protege Nathaniel Branden.
Its advisory board comprised Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and later George Stigler.