The Road to Serfdom remains one of the all-time classics of twentieth-century intellectual thought. For over half a century, it has inspired politicians and thinkers around the world, and has had a crucial impact on our political and cultural history. With trademark brilliance, Hayek argues convincingly that, while socialist ideals may be tempting, they cannot be accomplished except by means that few would approve of. Addressing economics, fascism, history, socialism and the Holocaust, Hayek unwraps the trappings of socialist ideology. He reveals to the world that little can result from such ideas except oppression and tyranny. Today, more than fifty years on, Hayek's warnings are just as valid as when The Road to Serfdom was first published.
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'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 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
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'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
'The Road to Serfdom' remains one of the all-time classics of twentieth-century intellectual thought. For over half a century, it has inspired politicians and thinkers around the world, and has had a crucial impact on our political and cultural history. With trademark brilliance, Hayek argues convincingly that, while socialist ideals may be tempting, they cannot be accomplished except by means that few would approve of. Addressing economics, fascism, history, socialism and the Holocaust, Hayek unwraps the trappings of socialist ideology. He reveals to the world that little can result from such ideas except oppression and tyranny. Today, more than fifty years on, Hayek's warnings are just as valid as when 'The Road to Serfdom' was first published.
Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992). An eminent Austrian economist and political philosopher, he won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
116 of 125 people found the following review helpful
By PJ Nasser
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
51 of 56 people found the following review helpful
By B. Jacobs
Format:Paperback
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.
73 of 82 people found the following review helpful
By Luc REYNAERT
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
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.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Road to Serfdom is , no question about, the most impostant book against all forms of totaliarianism. Is the response to the "Communist Manifesto" by Karl Marx.The book is dedicated to "socialist of all parties" and that's exactly the kind of people who should read it, no matter if they are socialists, communists, fascists, social democrats or wathever. Hayek puts them on the same league: the enemies of open society, as his friend Sir Karl Popper said.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
As competition and democracy address means, socialism and planned economies address ends.
2 May 2010
Format:Paperback
Lots of superior ideas have ultimately lost out, and society today looks the way it does mainly because of competition. For anyone to plan, or even attempt to plan this complex economy in an anywhere near optimal way, this task is substantially beyond the capacity of any individual on the planet. The best we can do is to construct a system in which we can predict future state behaviour on basis of our own = a legal framework. Within this framework, we are free to invest the fruits of our labour in any way we want, as long as it doesn't cause societal harm. This is our current system.
A state planned economy, however, will have to plan those decisions for us. They will have to decide how many cars/telephones/tonnes of wheat we produce next year, and consequent thereof, in order to efficiently run this system, dictate where we live, what we do for a living, and control our access to unbiased information that could ultimately lead to harm of the planned economy. Therefore, promises of "freedom" in a socialist state will become the exact opposite of what it promises.
After reading this book, it is obvious Orwell drew a significant part of his inspiration for '1984' from this work.
A state planned economy, however, will have to plan those decisions for us. They will have to decide how many cars/telephones/tonnes of wheat we produce next year, and consequent thereof, in order to efficiently run this system, dictate where we live, what we do for a living, and control our access to unbiased information that could ultimately lead to harm of the planned economy. Therefore, promises of "freedom" in a socialist state will become the exact opposite of what it promises.
After reading this book, it is obvious Orwell drew a significant part of his inspiration for '1984' from this work.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential Reading Even For Lefties
I picked this from my stack with both excitement and trepidation. Excitement because this is one of the most famous books of the last century on political economy and trepidation... Read more
Published 1 month ago by demola
4.0 out of 5 stars
Helpful
This book is now rather dated, but still provides a valuable insight into the thought processes during the second world war regarding the need to re-assess the world's economic... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Liquidator
4.0 out of 5 stars
Serious Stuff
Something for those who want guidance in the history of economics and are prepared to think about it. Enjoy it!
Published 3 months ago by Michael
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Introduction To Hayek's Work
This book is a great introduction to Hayek's work.
The views in the book, the main ones being that to much government planning leads to,to much government power,along... Read more
The views in the book, the main ones being that to much government planning leads to,to much government power,along... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Chris Stevens
3.0 out of 5 stars
informative
A well written and argued point of view. It is a pity Labour ministers in the last government did not read this. Perhaps they have and want us all to be serfs!!
Published 7 months ago by Mr. Brian W. Bush
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two Classic Essays on problems with socialism
This condensed edition of the RTS is worth buying even if you already own another edition. It is a quick read, and it comes with a worthwhile essay on socialist intellectuals. Read more
Published 13 months ago by D. W. MacKenzie
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read book for those who are confused about economics
I had heard of this book for several years but never thought to actually read it in total; extracts on various websites; including the Cobden Centre; were all that I knew. Read more
Published 16 months ago by john
1.0 out of 5 stars
Hayek's warnings never materialised
Hayek misunderstands the relationship Fascism and other far right dictatorships have to economics and its similarity to Communsim. Read more
Published 18 months ago by I. Young
5.0 out of 5 stars
A defence against the political left
This is definitely political economics and even though it completely destroys the Utopian idealistic values of the political left, Hayek is not particularly advocating the... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Den
5.0 out of 5 stars
As relevent as ever........
'The Road to Serfdom ' seeks to teach us a lesson from history. It's a simple but profound lesson: namely that excessive state power, however well intentioned or ideologically... Read more
Published 20 months ago by os
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