Friedrich Hayek: A Biography

Friedrich August von Hayek, a reserved Austrian economist, died in 1992. Though largely unrecognized during his lifetime, he is today regarded as a visionary. In 1944, in the wake of the great Depression and with the political left on the ascendant, Hayek published his seminal work, "The Road to Serfdom", damning communism and socialism and extolling the free market as the best way around which to organize a society. At the time, it discredited him completely. Today, with the fall of the USSR and the effective end of the communist/socialist state, Hayek does indeed seem like a visionary. His theories have finally been embraced by mainstream economists and his work is extolled by world leaders. In this biography, Alan Ebenstein lifts the figure of Hayek from the shadows that surround him to take the true measure of his accomplishment. In looking at his life, Ebenstein also discusses his major works: "The Road to Serfdom", "The Constitution of Liberty" (1960), "Law, Legislation and Liberty" (1973-1979), and "The Fatal Conceit" (1988).