Hayek (PDF)

Hayek has been one of the key liberal thinkers of the twentieth
century. He has also been much misunderstood. His work has crossed
disciplines - economics, philosophy and political science - and
national boundaries. He was an early critic of Keynes, and became
famous in the 1940s for his warnings that the advance of
collectivism in western democracies was the road to serfdom. He was
a key figure in the post-war revival of free market liberalism and
achieved renewed notoriety and some political influence in the
1970s and 1980s as one of the chief intellectual inspirations for
the New Right in Britain and the United States.

This book traces Hayek's intellectual formation in Austrian
economics and English liberalism. It analyzes the main themes of
his thought such as the idea of a market order, the nature of
knowledge, the limits of government, and his critiques of socialism
and conservatism, and assesses the originality and internal
coherence of his account of liberalism and modernity as well as his
interventions in policy debates. It argues that Hayek the social
scientist has to be disentangled from Hayek the ideologue in order
to appreciate the importance and implications of some of his
insights into the nature of modern societies.

As a critical guide to one of the most influential thinkers of
our times, this book is an indispensable source. It will be of
interest to students in politics, economics and philosophy, as well
as to all those interested in a comprehensive introduction to one
of the most controversial thinkers of the twentieth century.