In 1944, a little known Austrian academic wrote an abbreviated manifesto attacking central economic planning and defending individual liberty. It was hardly the sort of screed folks in those days were lining up at bookstores to buy. But amazingly, Friedrich Hayek's little book,
The Road to Serfdom, sold tens of thousands of copies, was quickly translated into more than twenty languages, and helped to launch the modern Conservative movement. Roger Kimbell tells the remarkable story of Hayek and his little book in the current issue of
The New Criterion. It is a story worth retelling and remembering--even as the University of Chicago Press releases a new "definitive" edition of Hayek's gretest work.
It seems that we need a counter-part to Thomas Cahill's Hinges of History series. His insights into the roles of the Irish, Jews, Greeks, and Medievals are delightful and lively. But there are other unnoticed hinges: Austrian economists--Hayek and Von Mises, etc. who saved us from socialism and collectivism; Dutch Calvinists, like Van Prinsterer and Kuyper, etc. who showed us to to apply the Bible worldviewishly; Russians like Solzhenitsyn,etc. who showed us the truths about Communism. It feels good to be on the winning side of history.
ReplyDeleteRepublican Presidential Candidate, Ron Paul, in a recent interview at a college student's dorm room mentioned Mises and Hayek by name. With his recent surge in the polls after the first debate, there is a slim chance that we might have a President beholden to Austrian economics. What a strange world we live in!
ReplyDeleteCheck out the interview here:
http://studentsforpaul.org/blog?page=1