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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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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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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
92 of 99 people found the following review helpful
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.
57 of 64 people found the following review helpful
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.
34 of 38 people found the following review helpful
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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 23 days ago by D. W. MacKenzie
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 3 months ago by john
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 5 months ago by I. Young
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 6 months ago by Den
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 7 months ago by os
One of the great classics of political philosophy: readable,...
This seminal treatise from Austrian economist and political philosopher Friedrich von Hayek was written as early as 1944, during WW2 when he was living in England as a political... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Dr. Trang
A must-read for the understanding of contemporary political and...
'The Road to Serfdom' has long since entered the canon of right-wing political writing. Its influence has been widespread and long-lasting. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Paul Bowes
Compelling.
I expected dogmatic ultraliberalism of the least realistic kind: an end to all tax, privatization of the military, abolition of antitrust and so on. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mash
A must read
Rarely I've read a book which I can relate to and agree so much on. A must read for everyone, especially for socialist fanatics (and yes, it will be against almost everything they... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Aki Kivirinta
Still Relevant
Writing in the middle of WWII, F.A. Hayek was concerned with what he was seeing: far from learning lessons from the destructive forces of fascism and communism, many politicians... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Dr. Bojan Tunguz
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