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Summary: Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely!
Review: Frederick Hayek's masterpiece, unappreciated in 1944, stands the test of time. His premise that central planning destroys liberty of thought as well as body has proved true as evidenced by the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the economic and cultural devastation of such countries as Cuba and North Korea. In attempting to correct injustices in the economic life of people, the central planners eventually control all facets of people's lives including education, civil service, medicine, and industry. It is bureaucrats in the central government who decide who is to get a job, what that person is to be paid, how that person is to be promoted, and what kind of lodging that person is to have instead of the free market. Highly recommended!
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Summary: One of the 25 most important conservative books
Review: Hayek lived into his nineties and died just a few years ago. Like Friedman, he won the Nobel Prize in economics. While most of his writings are fairly technical, The Road to Serfdom is highly readable. Written in England in 1944 while Hayek was an Austrian refugee from Nazi-occupied Europe, the book is pure gold for conservatives and well worth frequent reading. But it is utterly frustrating for a liberal reader because it explains so clearly and powerfully why socialism can't work.
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Summary: Fundamental Reading!!
Review: This book derails the proponents of statist ideology off their tracks. Freedom-loving individuals in the dark about ideology, economics, and politics had best wake up and read this book. If you don't want the distopian nightmare world prophesized in George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's A Brave New World, or Ayn Rand's Anthem to every meet reality -- then wake up and smell the statism.
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Summary: THE short work on the failures of socialism
Review: The Road to Serfdom is a classic for many reasons -- not least because it is the first book of a Nobel laureate -- but the chief among them is that nothing else so clearly and completely shows the degeneration of liberty inherent in the handing of arbitrary power to a bureaucracy. This book was written in Britain in 1944. Hayek wanted to examine Soviet Russia and compare it to wartime Britain; however, the authorities would not allow that approach because of the alliance of the time; and therefore, Hayek compared to Britain none other than National Socialist (i.e., Nazi) Germany. Nothing is lost in the trade. The comparison, of course, is between a totalitarian socialist state and a democratic socialist state. Hayek shows that the only difference is the degree of benevolence of those leading the two countries; he also shows that, once arbitrary power is handed over, it cannot normally be regained. No review can do The Road to Serfdom justice. On the other hand, since the book is quite short, and since it is one of those books about which it can be right said that if you haven't read it you are not educated, I say just go and read it for yourself. You too will see what millions already have.
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Summary: A timeless politcal as well as economic statement
Review: This classic is as relevant today as it was when written well over a half century ago. Hayek does more than analyze the economic consequences of a planned society ... he also illustrates the political fallout of Socialism. Hayek asserts that politically, it is impossible to be free if we are not free economically. The reason is that those who disagree with socialism cannot opt out and become entrepeneurs. In order for socialism to work, it must apply to everyone. Therefore, even though a socialist might be a supporter of democratic institutions, our freedoms must ultimately be corroded for socialism to work, no matter how well meaning the socialist originally may haved been. Hayek sees a limited role for government and he uses highways as an example. We are free to travel and use the highways and go where we please. However, there must be some basic rules that we all agree on such as the rules that we all drive on the right side and that we stop at red lights. So too, there is a role for government to set basic ground rules and to provide protection for us. But.... these rules must ultimately be in furtherance of assuring our freedom. Hayek considers himself a liberal in the classic meaning of the term which would be individual freedom and few governmental controls. In prefaces to the book written decades later, Hayek stands by his use of the term "liberal" to describe his views, positing that what has become called "liberalism" has nothing to do with real liberalism as set forth by earlier thinkers such as John Locke. Although written for a British readership in 1944, this book remains highly readible (rather than overly technical) and very relevant to today's economic and political issues. I recommend the book highly.
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Summary: Seminal Work
Review: Hayek presents a concise treatise on the danger of "planned" societies versus individual determinism within a well-developed legal and economic structure. This book, together with Ayn Rand's works, The Federalist Papers and de Tocqueville, form the basis of the true liberal (in the original meaning) economy. I regret that most people will never take time to read it.
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Summary: Amazing Little Book
Review: I was introduced to Friedrich von Hayek through reading Thomas Sowell. And I decided to read this book because it was a highly recommended read in the Freedom's Nest Website Reading List. As soon as I started reading this book, I developed a warm feeling toward the author. In his original introduction, Hayek started with: "When a professional student of social affairs writes a political book, his first duty is plainly to say so. This is a political book...." His candor and his confidence were so befitting with his great intellect. Noting that Hayek was an Austrian, I was impressed by his mastery of the English language and I enjoyed his writing style. With mild language and in simple terms, Hayek made very sweeping predictions and patiently explained his reasoning with convincing arguments based on economic and human behavioral theories. Hayek's thesis was that central economic planning will inevitably lead to governmental control of every facet of its citizen's life, and hence toward a totalitarian state. Hayek's other insightful observations: Nazism, Fascism and communism all have the same roots. In a totalitarian state, it is always the ruthless and the unsophisticated who ascend to the top. Extensive governmental control harms the society not just in delivering dismal economic results, but, more seriously, it produces a psychological change, an alteration in the character of the people. One must not forget that when Hayek wrote this book, his was very much a voice in the wilderness; he was ridiculed and denounced by his contemporaries. But his ideas stood the test of time! And blessedly, he lived to see that - to see first the building and eventually the fall of the Berlin Wall. This little book was said to have had definitive influence on such giants as Churchill, Thatcher, Reagan and many others. Perhaps the book's influence was best attested to by its being banned in the USSR, China and many other totalitarian countries. This book belongs on your book shelf.
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Summary: For Freedom
Review: The chilling title is what first attracted me to the book. I've never forgotten it since. Hayek's famous little book is a rallying cry for freedom, and against all the powerful forces which constantly tend to crush it. He wrote the book with a particular audience in mind - the socialists in Britain especially, and elsewhere in Europe, whose collectivistic, anti-liberal ideas had gained greater acceptance on the part of the people and politicians alike in the years leading up to World War II. But this is a book for all times, and for everyone, especially young people. All young people should be encouraged to read this book many, many times. Having the read the book, the question which people should ask themselves before judging any political action or programme is this: Is this a step towards greater liberty and choice, or less? Freedom or serfdom, that is the question.
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Summary: Brilliant
Review: Hayek clearly demonstrates how the internal logic of socialism or collectivism (in whatever form it takes) requires the use of real force, sooner or later and if necessary very brutal force, in order to carry out its goals. Many, probably most, advocates of collectivism do not understand this and would be distressed if they did. I was so impressed with the Hayek's book, that I got a yellow highlighter and began marking key passages. I haven't done that since I was a college student many years ago. My thanks to P.J. O'Rourke for citing (on C-Span) how important this book was to him and motivating me to read it.
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Summary: Food for thoughts, not belief
Review: Many call the book a gravestone of socialist thinking. I rather define it gravestone of socialist belief. In our times - times of free economy victory - we keep forgetting about "socialist" parts in modern social machine. For people who thinks about social architecture not in terms of "triumph of the will", but in terms of social reforms this book gives rare understanding of trivial fact : any society is built from real people.
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