Customer Reviews

Friedrich Hayek: A Biography

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Hayek is my favorite author not because I agree with all of his ideas, but because his books have taught me so much. I write this review as an experienced fan of Hayek, but those who have read few or none of Hayek's writings will benefit the most from reading this well-researched biography.

Never before has any writing put together so complete a picture of Hayek's life and background. If you admire Hayek as much as I do, you'll find it very satisfying to read Ebenstein's largely fruitful efforts to understand the man behind the distant - but kind - demeanor that he wore. Frankly, much of the value I got from this book came from the satisfaction of my curiosity. Those who haven't yet read much of Hayek, however, will find far more of value in Ebenstein's excellent summaries and analyses of Hayek's ideas. Ebenstein has a knack for condensing Hayek's ideas in a concise and highly readable form, which Hayek himself could not do very well. Mostly Ebenstein saw it as his function to simply summarize and explain Hayek's ideas, but he also entered into some interesting discussions about the intellectual controversies Hayek was involved in. Obviously the socialist calculation debate is one such controversy, but Ebenstein also picks out a few nits from Hayek's books, such as an inconsistent interpretation of J.S. Mill and the inspiration Hayek may have taken from a misunderstanding of Karl Popper.

I was most disappointed with the author's treatment of Hayek's strictly economic work in capital and trade cycle theory. In short, Ebenstein informs us that Hayek's views on these subjects are very far from being the accepted wisdom among economists, and that students of Hayek consider his economic work to be greatly overshadowed by his achievements in political philosophy. Both points are true, but neither goes any distance toward refuting Hayek's somewhat unique ideas about capital, business cycles, and inflation. Ebenstein nearly dismisses these theories out of hand. Readers will probably either be left unconvinced that Hayek was wrong, or they will be left with the impression that Hayek was not a very successful economist. I feel that if Ebenstein is going to reject the Austrian Business Cycle theory (ABC), he has no excuse not to provide his readers with an adequate summary of the arguments against it. First of all, a good, nontechnical argument against it could be made within the space of a few pages. Secondly, the mainstream arguments against ABC aren't usually a complete rejection of it: many mainstream economists only differ from ABC by degrees. For instance, Hayek thought that the most serious side effect of inflation was, by far, its distortion of capital investments. Some mainstream economists would agree that this distortion can take place, but they would argue that it isn't nearly as important as the other costs of inflation, such as the deadweight loss resulting from individuals' efforts to avoid having their wealth depreciated away. On the other hand, I think Ebenstein slightly understated the enormity of the chasm between the mainstream and Hayek (along with the other Austrian economists) when it comes to methodological issues. The slight mistreatments of Hayek's economics constitute my only complaints against this book. It is excellent in every other regard.

As a student of Hayak, I was often troubled by my inability to fully grasp the nature of some of his theories. After reading Mr. Ebentein's magnificent work I now have a richer understanding of this master's contributions.

I found Mr. Ebenstein's book illuminating and comprehensive. He has a crisp writing style and I was impressed with the easy flow of the material.

An excellent read; I highly recommend this book!

I have read a number of books on Hayek, classical liberalism, and libertarianism, and this is the best of them all. This biography presents both Hayek's life and thought. The tone is friendly to Hayek but not uncritical. I learned a great deal not just about Hayek but about the people with whom he interacted--von Mises, Keynes, Popper, Friedman, and others.

Alan Ebenstein is to be congratulated for writing a biography of perhaps the most distinguished economic philosopher of the past century. Friedrich Hayek took to task the inane extremes of both the Socialists and anarchical Libertarians. The German born scholar embittered the former for committing the unpardonable offense of inhibiting their grab for power. These arrogant intellectuals subtly implied that their statist theories deserved adulation---and yes, inevitably, unhesitating obedience. Hayek argued that an increasingly complex society significantly lessens the likelihood of these alleged benevolent and brilliant elitists to productively manage economic events for the masses. It is impossible, Hayek added, for a central authority to even begin masterminding the enormous and minutely diverse judgments required to perform the everyday economic chores of a large community. The radical Libertarian Ayn Rand despised Hayek and regarded him as an enemy. Hayek's writings concerning the mandatory need for laws to underpin all viable societies probably did much to enrage the intellectually immature Rand. She ideologically refused to accept the empirical evidence that business people are naturally inclined toward avaricious behavior; that the at least metaphorical reality of Original Sin is alive and well within the human soul of even the most saintly among us. Hayek had no problem agreeing with the earlier moralist, Adam Smith, who warned that businessmen innately join together in order to conspire against the consumer.

Hayek clearly understood the hopeless dilemma of a statist economy in confronting the issues of pricing. Only the essentially "invisible hand" free decision making of individual buyers and sellers is capable of realistically pricing goods and services. One doesn't need to completely agree with all of Sigmund Freud's views to concede the extraordinary influence the subconscious has upon our overall thinking processes. Rarely do individuals spend a lot time and effort when purchasing an item such as a candy bar. Usually this is an impulsive buying decision comprising a fraction of a second. Even more significant purchases like an automobile or a house involve motivations that are hidden from our conscious mind. Thus, only we are able to somewhat haphazardly conclude on what constitutes an acceptable price regarding our own particular economic transactions.

Democratic Capitalism deserves two cheers, and not three. It does not promise a utopian world. On the contrary, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, this most most efficient and beneficial economic system is brutish, awful, and sometimes downright disgusting, but it far surpasses any other economic system in human history. You owe it to yourself to learn more about Friedrich Hayek, a giant of a man who so profoundly influenced our world for the better. Ebenstein's book is a great place to start.

Hayek is a figure who has deserved a biography for some time. In "Friedrich Hayek: A Biography" Alan Ebenstein has done a great service to our understanding of Hayek the man and of Hayek's ideas. Ebenstein traces Hayek's intellectual journey from Vienna to the London School of Economics to the University of Chicago to the Nobel Prize. Many of the key intellectual figures of the twentieth century are covered in this excellent book--Ludwig von Mises, John Maynard Keynes, Karl Popper, Milton Friedman, and others. According to Ebenstein Hayek's central idea was that "liberty is the supremacy of law." My only regret is that the book could have been longer.

Ebenstein's biography of Hayek is well received, as the other reviews testify. It's informative, readable, and generally fair-minded. Nevertheless I feel that the merits of this book do not deserve such high praise as was given, even by such outstanding men as Friedman. Ebenstein's understanding of Hayek's ideas is narrow and derivative, his portrayal of the man is flat. Above all, the most fundamental aspect of Hayek's thought, namely his elucidation of a complex spontaneous order (independent of the properties of the elements), is neglected. Ebenstein also completely misunderstood Hayek's criticism of Mill, which is characterized as unfair in this book. This is no minor misunderstanding, as what's at stake is Hayek's attack on the concept of social justice, again one of the most important parts of his political philosophy. Reading this book, one gets the impression that Ebenstein is a hard-working, sincere, and intelligent fellow. But as the author of the first substantial biography of Hayek, he simply does not possess enough learning or insight to carry out this task adequately.

Hayek's life deserves-no demands- a biography of the highest order. I read Hayek in my studies in college and I was fascinated by his theories. He was a man who thought and wrote on profound economic issues.
This biography, while seemingly well researched, does a disservice to the man. I (and a book club for an ivy league college) found it poorly written and structured. Sentences, paragraphs and thoughts collide.
I would only recommend this book to diehard Hayek groupies (though it may cause pain). Individuals who want to learn more about him might benefit from skimming through the book. However, I would caution those individuals who seek out intelligent biographies of interesting people-that despite Hayek's very interesting life, this is not an intelligent biography worthy of him.

This biography is one of those that once you start reading, you can't put it down! This long-overdue biography on Hayek is more of a commentary upon his major works and thoughts, interwoven with the major movements within his life.Most personal reflections of the man himself come from people who, in most cases, only knew him briefly or in limited circumstances, which is one of the major weaknesses of the work. However, the insights into the man are, at times, critical and help to remind us that the great man was human! Yet, one is left with the feeling that there is much more to be revealed, not so much about his weaknesses, but his undoubted greatness! This book is a MUST for every lover of Hayek. But there is room, in the future, for a further biography, written in the same strain as Skidelsky's excellent work on Keynes

Excerpted from book review by Bruce Caldwell in The Independent Review (Fall 2001)

Alan Ebenstein's Frederick Hayek: A Biography is the first English-language biography of FA Hayek. The volume clearly represents a massive amount of investigative work. It has much to recommend it, not least that it offers up the facts of Hayek's life in clear prose and with considerable detail.

He has gathered into one place virtually everything that has been written about Hayek's life and personal relationships. The book represents a truly imperssive amount of investigative work. Ebenstein has done a superb job of collecting and putting into usable form what already existed in print about Hayek's life and of filling in most of the remaining holes by his own investigative effort.

Diminishing this considerable accomplishment is Eberstein's insistence on offering at various places throughout the book his own assessments of Hayek's substantive work. Too often summaries compress an entire literature or debate into a few pages.

Those who wish to know about Hayek's life should get this book and study it carefully, for it contains more information than any other source available on that subject. It is also, in my opinion, quite solid on certain aspects of Hayek's political thought. But it is not a particularly good guide to Hayek's intellectual development or to his legacy in other areas. The book would have been far stronger had Ebenstein stuck to reporting and left out his own responses to Hayek.

Ebenstein's most recent work is simply the best avalible on Friedrich Hayek. I'm sure that it will become standard reading by those that have an interest in Hayek.