The Road to Serfdom The Definitive Edition (Volume 2) Publisher: University Of Chicago Press

by Friedrich A. Hayek

From the rear cover of this 283-page "An unimpeachable classic work in political philosophy, intellectual and cultural history, and economics, 'The Road to Serfdom' has inspired and infuriated politicians, scholars, and general readers for half a century. Originally published in 1944, [this book] was seen as heretical for its passionate warning against the dangers of state control over the means of production. For F.A. Hayek, the collectivist idea of empowering government with increasing economic control would lead not to a utopia but to the horrors of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. But over the past sixty years, [this book] has established itself alongside the works of de Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill, and George Orwell for its timeless meditation on the relation between individual liberty and government authority."

Paperback

Published January 1, 2007

About the author

Friedrich August von Hayek CH was an Austrian and British economist and philosopher known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought. He is considered by some to be one of the most important economists and political philosophers of the twentieth century. Hayek's account of how changing prices communicate signals which enable individuals to coordinate their plans is widely regarded as an important achievement in economics. Hayek also wrote on the topics of jurisprudence, neuroscience and the history of ideas.

Hayek is one of the most influential members of the Austrian School of economics, and in 1974 shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with Gunnar Myrdal "for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena." He also received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 from president George H. W. Bush.

Hayek lived in Austria, Great Britain, the United States and Germany, and became a British subject in 1938.

Reviews

[Sean Hadley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had read this sooner. I think every person interested in any form of socialism, positively or negatively, should give this book a serious read.