The Road to Serfdom, the Definitive Edition

Text and Documents

An unimpeachable classic work in political philosophy, intellectual and cultural history, and economics, The Road to Serfdom has inspired and infuriated politicians, scholars, and the public for half a century. Originally published in 1944 - when Eleanor Roosevelt supported the efforts of Stalin, and Albert Einstein subscribed lock, stock, and barrel to the socialist program - The 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, Reader's Digest published a condensed version of the book, and soon thereafter the Book-of-the-Month Club distributed this edition 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 20 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 the Collected Works of F. A. Hayek. The volume includes a foreword by series editor and leading Hayek scholar Bruce Caldwell explaining the book's origins and publishing history and assessing common misinterpretations of Hayek's thought. Caldwell has also standardized and corrected Hayek's references and added helpful new explanatory notes. Supplemented with an appendix of related materials ranging from prepublication reports on the initial manuscript to forewords to earlier editions by John Chamberlain, Milton Friedman, and Hayek himself, this new edition of The Road to Serfdom is the definitive version of Hayek's enduring masterwork.

©2007 Estate of F. A. Hayek (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

A great reading of a remarkable book.

Hayek's words read as true today as they did in 1944 in the continual battle between liberty and tyranny.

Needed now more than ever

To paraphrase a Puritan pastor, “Liberty begat prosperity, and the daughter ate the mother.” Hayek warns of the dangers of a creeping desire to power and control that comes under the alluring banner of “government planning.”

A MUST READ

A great read / listen that I would recommend for everyone. I remember reading this in school, but it is far more applicable when you're old enough to understand it more.

Prescient for our country

Hardly seems like a book written 80 years ago. Just as valuable today as it must have been then.

Interesting

Written at a time when the world was at a crossroad and central planning was much talked about and practiced. Since then central planning failed, proving the author right about the extreme.

Perhaps because it was written about England, America's unique Confederate Capitalism is missing. Today we call it systemic racism and it holds liberty hostage in the name of liberty. Had he been uniquely familiar with the problem surely Hayek would have much to say as he surveyed each state and their legacy.

The world's hybrid economies would be all ears.