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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 1944when Eleanor Roosevelt supported the efforts of Stalin, and Albert Einstein subscribed lock, stock, and barrel to the socialist programThe Road to Serfdom 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.
First published by the University of Chicago Press on September 18, 1944, The Road to Serfdom garnered immediate, widespread attention. The first printing of 2,000 copies was exhausted instantly, and within six months more than 30,000 books were sold. In April 1945, Readers Digest published a condensed version of the book, and soon thereafter the Book-of-the-Month Club distributed thisedition to more than 600,000 readers. A perennial best seller, the book has sold 400,000 copies in the United States alone and has been translated into more than twenty languages, along the way becoming one of the most important and influential books of the century.
With this new edition, The Road to Serfdom takes its place in the series TheCollected Works of F. A. Hayek. The volume includes a foreword byseries editor and leading Hayek scholar Bruce Caldwell explaining the books origins and publishinghistory and assessing common misinterpretations ofHayeks thought. Caldwell has also standardized and correctedHayeks references and added helpful new explanatory notes. Supplemented with an appendix of related materials ranging from prepublication reports on the initial manuscriptto forewords to earlier editions by John Chamberlain, Milton Friedman, and Hayek himself, this new edition of The Road to Serfdom will be the definitive version of Friedrich Hayeks enduring masterwork.
First published by the University of Chicago Press on September 18, 1944, The Road to Serfdom garnered immediate, widespread attention. The first printing of 2,000 copies was exhausted instantly, and within six months more than 30,000 books were sold. In April 1945, Readers Digest published a condensed version of the book, and soon thereafter the Book-of-the-Month Club distributed thisedition to more than 600,000 readers. A perennial best seller, the book has sold 400,000 copies in the United States alone and has been translated into more than twenty languages, along the way becoming one of the most important and influential books of the century.
With this new edition, The Road to Serfdom takes its place in the series TheCollected Works of F. A. Hayek. The volume includes a foreword byseries editor and leading Hayek scholar Bruce Caldwell explaining the books origins and publishinghistory and assessing common misinterpretations ofHayeks thought. Caldwell has also standardized and correctedHayeks references and added helpful new explanatory notes. Supplemented with an appendix of related materials ranging from prepublication reports on the initial manuscriptto forewords to earlier editions by John Chamberlain, Milton Friedman, and Hayek himself, this new edition of The Road to Serfdom will be the definitive version of Friedrich Hayeks enduring masterwork.
Rate Points :5.0
Binding :Paperback
Label :University Of Chicago Press
Manufacturer :University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup :Book
Studio :University Of Chicago Press
Publisher :University Of Chicago Press
EAN :9780226320557
Price :$15.00USD
Lowest Price :$9.34USD
Customer ReviewsGreat service
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0
The book arrived almost immediately, in better shape than promised. Seller followed up to confirm receipt. I was very satisfied with this vendor and would recommend them without hesitation. MOM
Too bad we arent taking this advice
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :9
Friedrich Hayek, the Nobel prize winning economist, wrote this brilliant classic as a critique of government intervention and manipulation in markets. I am neither an economist nor a political scientist, but I was led to this book after watching with horror the recent outrages that are consciously being inflicted on us by our elected officials, most recently the bailout and socialization of the two giant mortgage lenders, Freddie and Fannie. I couldnt remember that I ever received any share of the loot when those companies were making huge profits and their CEOs were earning tens of millions per year, but now I find that our elected officials have written a blank check in my name, the taxpayer, to bail out these companies losses and stupidity, and then handed the check to a group of unelected officials (and, surprise, surprise, those two companies spend hundreds of millions on congressional lobbying). Privatize the gains, socialize the losses: sounds like a win-win situation for somebody.
This kind of disastrous socialism is exactly what Hayek critiques in devastating form in this book, specifically government control of the economy. Apparently, they say, this book has been very influential, but a layman could certainly never tell by looking around. Hayek was writing from the perspective of a central European who had recently witnessed first-hand the unfolding development of National Socialism (Nazism) in Germany, and he is warning that the exact same attitudes and policies that had been followed in Germany were uncritically being followed by the Allies, merely at a few years distance.
He begins by recollecting the ideals of old, classic liberalism, "the forgotten road". Of course, in Hayeks context, "liberal" means the true, historic liberalism of limited government, free markets, and private property, not "liberal" in the bastardized sense somehow hijacked by Leftists to mean unlimited government, socialized markets and massive forced wealth redistribution. He looks at the rise of collectivist thinking versus individual (its all for the greater good) the problems of central planning in a democracy (someone in power makes the economic decisions for everybody else) the downfall of the Rule of Law (government is no longer bound by fixed rules announced beforehand but instead possesses arbitrary power limited only by its own discretion) the inextricable link between centralized economic planning and totalitarian regimes (if were going to follow a plan, someones got to force everyone to follow it) the problem of deciding how the societys production will be distributed a chapter showing that "nothing is more fatal than the present fashion among intellectual leaders of extolling security at the expense of freedom" (Republicans apparently didnt get the memo) how in a socialized economy the worst individuals inevitably rise to the top (Really? Can it be? Obama and McCain?) the necessity of manipulating truth in a socialized society and the fact that Nazism was a direct outgrowth of socialism and socialist ideology.
The relevance of the points enumerated above does not require comment. We are running madly down the road to serfdom, which is the road of socialism. Unfortunately for those of us who are being dragged along against our will, history is not neutral, and we will suffer the consequences of other peoples decisions, just as the Jews in Germany did and the Russians in the Soviet Union did. Socialism has always led to poverty and oppression, and freedom, on the rare occasions it has been tried, has produced unparalleled prosperity. Hayek shows in detail why. Weve decided to give socialism another try. God help us.
The Road to Serfdom
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :2
This book by F.A. Hayek is eye-opening and terrifying in this age of Obama and Socialism (which is a code word for Marxism and Communism). In the book, you learn of the reasons for the failure of socialism and why it always fails and always will fail.
A Must Read
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0
This book is a classic and a mandatory read for anyone interested in the fundamental forces at work in an economy. In a sense it is just as much a book on sociological and psychological behavior in the marketplace as it is about economics, and it is not a tough, high esoteric read as many such books are. The reader should keep in mind as he goes through the book that Hayek was writing it for an English audience in the years immediately following WW II, but it is still applicable to an American audience of the 1940s and today. Make sure to read the prefaces and introductions to earlier publications of the book before reading the text itself.
The Road to Serfdom
Rating Point :5 Helpful Point :0
Great writer & book. Must read for anyone that desires to understand economics and politics.
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