09 February 2010
The Road to Serfdom
download full publication | download executive summary
subscribe to the IEA
Special Offer. Normal Price £10.00, Special Price £5.00
In The Road to Serfdom F. A. Hayek set out the danger posed to freedom by attempts to apply the principles of wartime economic and social planning to the problems of peacetime. Hayek argued that the rise of Nazism was not due to any character failure on the part of the German people, but was a consequence of the socialist ideas that had gained common currency in Germany in the decades preceding the outbreak of war. Such ideas, Hayek argued, were now becoming similarly accepted in Britain and the USA.
On its publication in 1944, The Road to Serfdom caused a sensation. Its publishers could not keep up with demand, owing to wartime paper rationing. Then, in April 1945, Reader’s Digest published a condensed version of the book and Hayek’s work found a mass audience. This condensed edition was republished for the first time by the IEA in 1999. Since then it has been frequently reprinted and the electronic version has been downloaded over 100,000 times. There is an enduring demand for Hayek’s relevant and accessible message.
The Road to Serfdom is republished in this impression with The Intellectuals and Socialism originally published in 1949, in which Hayek explained the appeal of socialist ideas to intellectuals – the ‘second-hand dealers in ideas’. Intellectuals, Hayek argued, are attracted to socialism because it involves the rational application of the intellect to the organisation of society, while its utopianism captures their imagination and satisfies their desire to make the world submit to their own design.
See also:
Economic Freedom and Representative Government by F. A. Hayek.
Choice in Currency: A Way to Stop Inflation by F.A. Hayek.
Denationalisation of Money by F.A. Hayek
A Tiger by the Tail: The Keynesian Legacy of Inflation by F.A. Hayek
Adam Smith - A Primer by Eamonn Butler.
Material about Hayek on the IEA blog
Institute of Economic Affairs, 2 Lord North Street, Westminster, London, SW1P 3LB | tel: 020 7799 8900 | fax: 020 7799 2137 | email: iea@iea.org.uk
Registered In England 755502, Charity No CC/235 351, Limited by Guarantee
site by politicos design: campaigning online with political & mp websites
