[179] in libertarians
Laissez Faire Book News: ROAD TO SERFDOM 50TH ANNIVERSARY
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Whitten)
Fri Sep 9 18:02:51 1994
Date: Fri, 9 Sep 1994 17:59:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: Chris Whitten <lfb@panix.com>
Apparently-To: <libertarians@mit.edu>
50 years ago this month, Hayek's classic *The Road to Serfdom* was
published in America. The University of Chicago Press is celebrating
by publishing a 50th anniversary edition. And, Laissez Faire Books is
celebrating by giving away a copy of Henry Hazlitt's September 24th,
1944 review from the cover of the *New York Times Book Review* with
every *Road to Serfdom* order.
THE ROAD TO SERFDOM
50th Anniversary Edition
by F.A. Hayek
with a new foreword by Milton Friedman
(1944; University of Chicago Press)
(reviewed by Jim Powell)
This year, much has been written about F.A. Hayek's
enormously influential classic, *The Road to Serfdom*. But until
now, no one has reported the inside story of how a few devoted
friends of freedom helped get the book published in America,
despite overwhelming hostility from publishers and the media.
"Friedrich A. Hayek's *The Road to Serfdom*," political
science professor Herman Finer fumed in 1946, reflecting
collectivist orthodoxy of the time, "constitutes the most
inopportune offensive against democracy to emerge from a
democratic country for many decades."
No doubt about it, *The Road to Serfdom* was explosively
controversial from the beginning, especially his case that all
forms of collectivism lead to tyranny. The book was first
published a half-century ago in Britain by Routledge, March 1944.
Nobel Prize winning economist Ronald Coase recalls that during
Britain's July 1945 parliamentary election campaign Winston
Churchill cited Hayek in his dramatic campaign speeches, to help
show that a Labor Party win would mean tyranny. Labor Party
leader Clement Atlee ridiculed Hayek and defeated Churchill. Soon
afterwards, Atlee began seizing coal, steel, railroads and other
businesses, and by 1950 there was forced labor in Britain.
Opposition to Hayek's ideas was fierce in the United States,
and a number of publishers rejected the book, but there were
friends of freedom who worked wonders. Hayek authorized fellow
Austrian economist Fritz Machlup, then working in Washington, to
try finding an American publisher, but he was unsuccessful. He
gave a copy of the Routledge page proofs to University of Chicago
economics professor Aaron Director who met Hayek in 1943 when
both were teaching at the London School of Economics. Director
passed the page proofs to Frank Knight, founding father of the
"Chicago School." Knight apparently gave them to William T.
Couch, a classical liberal friend at the University of Chicago
Press which agreed to publish the book on September 18, 1944. But
since nobody expected it would sell many copies, the initial
printing was only 2,000. It was a little wartime edition about 4-
7/8ths by 6-3/4 inches.
To help the book gain a hearing, the publishers asked John
Chamberlain, respected book editor for *Harper's* magazine and a
devout libertarian, to write a foreword. His name appeared
prominently on the cover.
The initial reception was cool. On September 20, 1944, *New
York Times* daily book reviewer Orville Prescott called it a "sad
and angry little book."
But then *New York Times* economics editorial writer Henry
Hazlitt weighed in with a home run: a 1,500 word blockbuster
review on the front page of the Sunday *New York Times Book
Review*, September 24, 1944. Hazlitt declared that "Friedrich
Hayek has written one of the most important books of our
generation." The University of Chicago Press ordered another
printing. The book sold 22,000 copies by year-end and sold this
much again by spring 1945.
Meanwhile, *Reader's Digest* editors DeWitt and Lila Acheson
Wallace expressed interest in publishing an excerpt from the
book, and the University of Chicago Press, eager to reach a
popular audience, seems to have given away those rights for
nothing--Hayek later remarked he never got a penny. In any case,
*The Road to Serfdom* filled the first 20 pages of the April 1945
*Reader's Digest* under a banner headline drawn from Hazlitt's
review: "One of the Most Important Books of Our Generation." This
brought Hayek's story to about 8 million people in the U.S.
alone. Subsequently, Book-of-the-Month Club distributed some
600,000 copies of a condensed edition.
Sales records are incomplete, but there were a good many
more printings after that, and the book eventually sold at least
230,000 copies in the U.S. Hayek went on a U.S. lecture tour,
including prestigious places like Harvard University, and he
decided he rather liked being a lightning rod for freedom. He
expressed his views in popular publications like the *Chicago Sun*,
*Boston Traveler* and *New York Times Magazine*. He met many friends
of freedom with whom he was to collaborate in later years. Three
dozen friends joined him to found the international Mont Pelerin
Society.
One of Hayek's friends, Milton Friedman, recalls that "From
the time I first read some of his works, and even more from the
time in the mid-1940s that I first met Friedrich Hayek, his
powerful mind, his moral courage, his lucid and always principled
exposition have helped to broaden and deepen my understanding of
the meaning and the requisites of a free society."
The 50th anniversary edition of *The Road to Serfdom*
features a foreword by Milton Friedman. It includes a thoughtful
essay he wrote for the 25th anniversary German edition and offers
his reflections on the book today.
Today people around the world appreciate Hayek's profound
truths which seemed so shocking a half-century ago. We at Laissez
Faire are proud to help distribute it in several dozen countries.
Now would be a good time for you to discover, or rediscover,
Hayek's extraordinary work.
Contents:
Foreword by Milton Friedman
Introduction
1. The Abandoned Road
2. The Great Utopia
3. Individualism and Collectivism
4. The "Inevitability" of Planning
5. Planning and Democracy
6. Planning and the Rule of Law
7. Economic Control and Totalitarianism
8. Who, Whom?
9. Security and Freedom
10. Why the Worst Get on Top
11. The End of Truth
12. The Socialist Roots of Naziism
13. The Totalitarians in Our Midst
14. Material Conditions and Ideal Ends
15. The Prospects of International Order
16. Conclusion
Book No. FA6155 (paperback) 272p. $10.95
Book No. FA6154 (hardcover) $24.95
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Please send this review to anyone who you think might be interested
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*The Road to Serfdom* 50th Anniversary edition will be available from
Laissez Faire Books in a few days. You can order it now. Call toll
free 1-800-326-0996 or (415) 541-9780, fax (415) 541-0597 or write to:
Laissez Faire Books, Dept. L17, 938 Howard St., #202, San Francisco,
CA, 94103.
TO ORDER VIA E-MAIL: Send your message to lfb@panix.com.
But for your security, we ask that you first call and leave us your
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order at anytime by e-mail using only your name and the zip code
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identity.) We will process your order using the card and address
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Call or e-mail for details.)
30-day money back guarantee. You can pay for your order with a Visa or
Mastercard, or with a personal check or money order. Include $3.25 for
shipping. California residents must include sales tax.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to let me know.
Thank you,
Chris
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Chris Whitten lfb@panix.com
Laissez Faire Books 1-800-326-0996
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