Author Description

In the last years of World War II Friedrich Hayek wrote "The Road to Serfdom." He warned the allies that policy proposals which were being canvassed for the post-war world ran the risk of destroying the very freedom for which they were fighting. On the basis of 'as in war, so in peace', economists and others were arguing that the government should plan all economic activity. Such planning, Hayek argued, would be incompatible with liberty, and had been at the very heart of the movements which had established both communism and Nazism.On its publication in 1944 the book caused a sensation. Neither its British nor its American publisher was able to keep up with demand, owing to war-time paper rationing. Then, in 1945, Reader's Digest published "The Road to Serfdom" as the condensed book in its April edition. For the first and still the only time, the condensed book was placed at the front of the magazine instead of the back. Hayek found himself a celebrity, addressing a mass market. The Reader's Digest condensed version of the text is republished here for the first time.