The Road to Serfdom, by Friedrich von Hayek

Friedrich August von Hayek was an economist and philosopher born in Austria. He is best known for his political economy/philosophy based defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism. In 1974, von Hayek received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (shared with Gunnar Myrdal) for his “pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and [his] penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena.”

After having “converted” to liberalism, von Hayek began attending Ludwig von Mises’ somewhat exclusive private seminars, where also Fritz Machlup, Alfred Schutz, Felix Kaufmann,and Gottfried Haberler participated.

The Road to Serfdom was written between 1940–1943. The title was inspired by the French classical liberal thinker Alexis de Tocqueville’s writings on the “road to servitude”. In it, von Hayek strongly opposes central planning, and also comes out moderately in favor of the free market system. However, he has much in common with modern institutionalists, and argues strongly for a large role for the central government than the minimalist state which Adam Smith favored.

Links to books by Friedrich von Hayek at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

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