the road to serfdom by friedrich a hayek

In the book, Hayek ' of the danger of tyranny that inevitably results from government control of economic decision-making through central planning.' He further argues that the abandonment of individualism and classical liberalism inevitably leads to a loss of freedom, the creation of an oppressive society, the tyranny of a dictator, and the serfdom of the individual. The Road to Serfdom was to be the popular edition of the second volume of Hayek's treatise entitled 'The Abuse and Decline of Reason', and the title was inspired by the writings of the 19th century French classical liberal thinker Alexis de Tocqueville on the 'road to servitude'. At the arrangement of editor Max Eastman, the American magazine Reader's Digest published an abridged version in April 1945, enabling The Road to Serfdom to reach a wider non-academic audience. It was published in the United States by the University of Chicago Press in September 1944 and achieved great popularity.

The book was first published in Britain by Routledge in March 1944, during World War II, and was quite popular, leading Hayek to call it 'that unobtainable book', also due in part to wartime paper rationing.

It has been translated into more than 20 languages and sold over two million copies (as of 2010). Since its publication in 1944, The Road to Serfdom has been popular among liberal (especially classical) and conservative thinkers, and remains referenced in modern discourse. The Road to Serfdom ( German: Der Weg zur Knechtschaft) is a book written between 19 by Austrian-British economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek.

The road to serfdom by friedrich a hayek