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The Road to Serfdom (Routledge Classics) (Paperback)

by F.A. Hayek (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition (17 May 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0415253896
  • ISBN-13: 978-0415253895
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 11,124 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #2 in  Books > History > Political History > Democracy
    #8 in  Books > History > Political History > Marxism & Communism
    #13 in  Books > History > Academic History

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Product Description

Review

'This book has become a true classic: essential reading for everyone who is seriously interested in politics in the broadest and least partisan sense.' - Milton Friedman

'This book should be read by everybody. It is no use saying that there are a great many people who are not interested in politics; the political issue discussed by Dr Hayek concerns every single member of the community.' - The Listener

'This book has become a true classic: essential reading for everyone who is seriously interested in politics in the broadest and least partisan sense.' - Milton Friedman

'This book should be read by everybody. It is no use saying that there are a great many people who are not interested in politics; the political issue discussed by Dr Hayek concerns every single member of the community.' - The Listener


Product Description

Addressing economics, fascism, history, socialism and the Holocaust, Hayek unwraps the trappings of socialist ideology. The Road to Serfdom remains one of the all-time classics of twentieth-century intellectual thought.
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Customer Reviews

37 Reviews
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4.2 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Liberalism Redux, 14 Jun 2006
The thesis of this book is quite a simple one. No one person or group of people can possibly have enough knowledge to effectively run an economy. No-one is able to collect and make use of sufficient information even about the past, let alone the present. Any attempt, therefore, to plan the future is bound to fail. Hayek goes on to postulate that this failure must result in the rule of a dictator as a last desperate fallback to take command of the spiralling chaos. The experience he had in mind, of course, was Nazi Germany whose fate he saw as ineluctable from the birth of the German welfare state in the late 19th Century. The command economy signifies the submission of the individual to the dictates of the planners in whose hands is concentrated the power that was once dispersed among many industrialists. The individual is thus reduced to the condition of the serf who ends up without even the power to sell his labour to a higher bidder.

This is a defence of private property, and the responsibility of the individual for his own fate whatever it may be. It is not libertarian; it does not wish to whittle down the power of the state to a bare minimum. However, aside from the legislation of basic standards, it argues for the exclusion of centralised power from the quick of economic life and the enabling of choice even to the poorest. It is a fundamental text of what was once called liberalism, and is as relevant today as it ever was.
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43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Secure a minimum income for everybody, 20 Oct 2005
By Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This book has been heavily criticized by the left, and with reason, for it saws the legs under their table.

Hayek's book is a frontal attack on the socialist dream of a centrally planned economy, which should wipe out the cyclical swings in a free market system.
For Hayek, a centrally planned economy is a synonym for slavery.
Hayed argues rightly that the replacement of free enterprise and competition by collectivism equals he abolition of democracy.
As L. Trotzky remarks (quoted in this book): 'In a country where the sole employer is the state, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle - who does not work shall not eat - has been replaced by a new one - who does not obey shall not eat.'

A centrally planned economy creates a totalitarian system where the end justifies the means, which in other words means a denial of all morals. Moreover, the individual is not respected as a man but becomes a cog in an enormous bureaucracy, where tolerance is not tolerated.

For real liberals (like B. Russell) power has been the archevil; to the strict collectivist it is a goal in itself.
Hayek is by any means not a pure liberal, because he insists that every state should provide a system of social insurance wth a minimum income for all.

Hayek's warnings have been gravely vindicated by the gruelng inhumanity of the totalitarian regimes, created after World War II.

This is a great book about liberty and independence, truth and intellectual honesty, peace and democracy and respect for the individual qua man.
A must read.

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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The most important book you will read, 4 Feb 2004
By B. Jacobs (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Written in 1944, in clear, modern English, this book must be one of the all time classics. In a forensic but highly readable analysis, Hayek explains that social justice is the goal of all systems, Socialism, Liberalism etc, and that they are just different approaches as to how to achieve it. He then shows how Socialism despite its very good intentions inevitably leads to the opposite of its goal. Liberalism is seen as the only genuine method to achieve true social justice. It is one of the most rigorous deconstructions of political thought I have ever read and is worthy of a law court, yet remains hugely readable.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Hayek takes us down the 'Road to serfdom' via Thatchers hand bag
A copy of which was rummered to have been carried around throughout the eights in the handbag of margaret thatcher hayeks road to serfdom teaches austrian ecconomics as freedom... Read more
Published 2 months ago by A Marston

4.0 out of 5 stars Pick your route...
This is an important book. But there is a tendency to place it on some kind of pedestal, as some kind of timeless classic and I think that is not correct. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Diziet

3.0 out of 5 stars A cobbler should stick to his last
This book usually comes highly recommended. A 'classic' by a Nobel prize winner. Hayek was in fact an economist, but for the purposes of this book he assumed a political... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Hardheart101

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting read, at least from a historical perpsective
I read this in conjunction with a number of "pro-socialism" books. While I disagreed with much of what Hayek had to say here it was nevertheless an interesting read, and an... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Mr. T. Goodacre

1.0 out of 5 stars A terrible book espousing a vile philosophy
It is my belief that this text is one of the most abhorrent in the history of political philosophy and that despite the very best intentions (a defense of liberal democracy) by... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Rp Wilkinson

2.0 out of 5 stars Ultimately disappoints
This is one of the greatest simple anti-state capitalist manifestos you will find, its punchy, its pacey, lots of utopian eulogising of what Hayek thought were much malinged and... Read more
Published on 27 Jul 2007 by Lark

3.0 out of 5 stars Good defence of liberal democracy from the dark 1940s
First published in 1944, Hayek's polemical work is a defence of classical liberalism in the face of totalitarianisms of both right- and left-wing hues. Read more
Published on 5 Jul 2007 by Gerard Noonan

4.0 out of 5 stars a bit brief
I bought this, and it's the abridged version. I somewhat wish i'd bought the full length version, and i'd suggest you buy the full version. Read more
Published on 19 Mar 2007 by M. May

5.0 out of 5 stars It should be mandatory reading
This, and its obvious sister, "Free to Choose" (Milton and Rose Friedman) should be mandatory reading for all the "presenters" in the Blair Broadcasting Company! Read more
Published on 3 Jan 2007 by Sid

5.0 out of 5 stars CHOOSE LIFE!
Even after six decades, The Road To Serfdom remains essential for understanding global economics and politics. Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2005 by Pieter

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