Books in Brief.Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek, CH (May 8, 1899 in Vienna – March 23, 1992 in Freiburg) was an Austrian-British economist and political philosopher known for his defence of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought in the mid-20th : A Biography, by Alan Ebenstein (Palgrave, 403 pp., $29.95) One of the greatest libertarian philosophers of the 20th century, Friedrich Hayek was also its most influential scourge of collectivist col·lec·tiv·ism n. The principles or system of ownership and control of the means of production and distribution by the people collectively, usually under the supervision of a government. economic theory. After establishing his reputation with The Road to Serfdom serfdom In medieval Europe, condition of a tenant farmer who was bound to a hereditary plot of land and to the will of his landlord. Serfs differed from slaves in that slaves could be bought and sold without reference to land, whereas serfs changed lords only when the land (1944), Hayek popularized the Austrian School of economics Austrian school of economics Body of economic theory developed by several late 19th-century Austrian economists. Carl Menger (1840–1921) published a paper on their new theory of value in 1871. , put the University of Chicago at the center of American free-market thought, and founded the Mont Pelerin Society The Mont Pelerin Society is an international organization composed of economists, intellectuals, business leaders, and others who favour classical liberalism; the society advocates free market economic policies and the political values of an open society. to help make the philosophic foundations of a free society a central issue in postwar Europe. Hayek argued convincingly for what seems today a commonplace: the superiority and rightness of an economic system based upon free markets rather than government manipulation in the cause of "fairness." His influence went far toward shaping the free-market renaissance that arose in the U.S. and the U.K. during the 1980s through the efforts of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Influence is one of the touchstones of Ebenstein's balanced and thoughtful biography, which is less a linear unfolding of Hayek's life than a tracing of the lives that influenced Hayek, and the lives of those whose philosophies he, in turn, helped to shape. Ebenstein gets off to a rocky start, filling his opening chapters with questionably organized facts and odd non sequiturs. But he hits his stride in the later chapters, especially his well-informed section on Hayek's Constitution of Liberty (1960), a work that is arguably just as important to conservative thought as the better-known Road to Serfdom. He also takes pains to explain Hayek's philosophical differences with much of the conservatism of his day; he was more a classic liberal- believing in the economy of the invisible hand Invisible Hand A term coined by economist Adam Smith in his 1776 book "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations". In his book he states: "Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. and the freedom of the individual, including a philosophy of free inquiry-than an adherent adherent /ad·her·ent/ (-ent) sticking or holding fast, or having such qualities. to custom, convention, and continuity. The overall tone is one of fairness, and the author does not fail to take issue with Hayek where he believes his positions are weak. And if Ebenstein's concluding claim that "the libertarian age is at hand" is excessive, he is on target when he writes that Hayek's written canon "will serve as a beacon to enlighten centuries." |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion