Hayek on Hayek: An Autobiographical Dialogue (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek) [Hardcover]

F. A. Hayek (Author), Stephen Kresge (Editor), Leif Wenar (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1994 | Series: The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek

The crumbling of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the iron curtain, and the Reagan and Thatcher "revolutions" all owe a tremendous debt to F. A. Hayek. Economist, social and political theorist, and intellectual historian, Hayek passionately championed individual liberty and condemned the dangers of state control. Now Hayek at last tells the story of his long and controversial career, during which his fortunes rose, fell, and finally rose again.

Through a complete collection of previously unpublished autobiographical sketches and a wide selection of interviews, Hayek on Hayek provides the first detailed chronology of Hayek's early life and education, his intellectual progress, and the academic and public reception of his ideas. His discussions range from economic methodology and the question of religious faith to the atmosphere of post-World War I Vienna and the British character.

Born in 1899 into a Viennese family of academics and civil servants, Hayek was educated at the University of Vienna, fought in the Great War, and later moved to London, where, as he watched liberty vanish under fascism and communism across Europe, he wrote The Road to Serfdom. Although this book attracted great public attention, Hayek was ignored by other economists for thirty years after World War II, when European social democracies boomed and Keynesianism became the dominant intellectual force. However, the award of the Nobel Prize in economics for 1974 signaled a reversal in Hayek's fortunes, and before his death in 1992 he saw his life's work vindicated in the collapse of the planned economies of Eastern Europe.

Hayek on Hayek is as close to an autobiography of Hayek as we will ever have. In his own eloquent words, Hayek reveals the remarkable life of a revolutionary thinker in revolutionary times.

"One of the great thinkers of our age who explored the promise and contours of liberty....[Hayek] revolutionized the world's intellectual and political life"—President George Bush, on awarding F. A. Hayek the Medal of Freedom

F. A. Hayek, recipient of the Medal of Freedom 1991 and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974, was a pioneer in monetary theory and the principal proponent of the libertarian philosophy. Hayek is the author of numerous books in economics, as well as books in political philosophy and psychology.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Champion of a free-market economy as a prerequisite to a free society, Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992) fought a losing battle against the centralizing policies of John Maynard Keynes. Nevertheless, the Vienna-born libertarian economist and political philosopher, who moved to London in 1931 and taught at the University of Chicago from 1950 to 1962, saw some of his ideas vindicated by the collapse of communism. Hayek's tough-minded approach to welfare reform and his belief that private enterprises should be allowed to compete with government make his views timely. In this feisty self-portrait, splicing autobiographical sketches and selected interviews, the 1974 Nobel Prize winner settles scores with Keynes and Harold Laski, discusses his affinity for his adopted country, Britain, and delves into monetary policy. Kresge is general editor of Hayek's collected works; Wenar is a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Economist, social and political theorist, and intellectual historian, Hayek has condemned state control of economies and societies throughout his 60-year career. Best known for his popular book, The Road to Serfdom (1945), which denounced central planning, Hayek was also a pioneer in monetary theory and a principal proponent of the libertarian philosophy. Ignored by many economists during the post- World War II era when Keynesianism was the dominant intellectual force, Hayek finally came into his own again in 1974 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics. His life and views are depicted in a series of oral history interviews and in Hayek's own autobiographical notes. Recommended for large academic libraries.
Harry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll., CUNY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 177 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (June 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226320626
• ISBN-13: 978-0226320625
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,133,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Friedrich August Hayek (1899-1992), recipient of the Medal of Freedom in 1991 and co-winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974, was a pioneer in monetary theory and the principal proponent of libertarianism in the twentieth century. He taught at the University of London, the University of Chicago, and the University of Freiburg. His influence on the economic policies in capitalist countries has been profound, especially during the Reagan administration in the U.S. and the Thatcher government in the U.K.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Master of free trade arguments, July 20, 2003

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Bruce P. Barten (Saint Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hayek on Hayek: An Autobiographical Dialogue (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek) (Hardcover)

Concern for the self in this book zeroes in on the intellectual basis for a tremendous reputation in free world economics. It is by and about Friedrich August von Hayek, who died on March 23, 1992. Most of the 170 pages are devoted to the years leading up to THE ROAD TO SERFDOM, which Hayek wrote during World War II and published in 1944. The "autobiographical notes that Hayek wrote over a period of years beginning in 1945," (p. ix) which are used throughout the book, tend to look back into his past. Part Three, beginning on page 99, explains that the war provided a setting for thinking and writing "studies on the abuse and decline of reason to which I had devoted the first two years of the war." (p. 99). Part Three ends with a transcript (pp. 110-123) of a Radio Discussion, April 22, 1945, with University of Chicago assistant professor of economics Maynard C. Krueger, national chairman of the Socialist party, who ran as vice-presidential candidate on the national Socialist ticket in 1940, and Professor Emeritus Charles E. Merriam, who served three terms as alderman on the Chicago "City Council, and in 1911 was narrowly defeated for mayor of Chicago." (p. 109).

The discussion begins with a few pages on planning. When directly questioned about TVA, Hayek responded, "There is a great deal of the TVA to which no economist in repute, and certainly not the laissez-faire people, will object. . . . If the hydroelectric power really could not have been provided by private enterprise, I have no objection." (p. 113). If you really want economic growth, Hayek has a point, "where you can create a competitive situation, you ought to rely upon competition." (p. 113). This might be the same point: "I am a convinced free-trader, and free trade is part of the same philosophy." (p. 115).

The former alderman, Merriam, notes how the competition of ideas may result in the opposite of Hayek's ideal. "It was not the fact of communism but the fear of communism that was the most powerful factor in the development of Naziism." (p. 117). The argument gets back to planning, as Hayek says, "That method of central planning which is proposed as an alternative method of organizing production to take the place of competition means that a government, or some central authority, must take complete control of the resources." (p. 119). "Most of the war controls are central planning, but it is only temporary. ... During the war, we all have to go to some extent totalitarian." (p. 119).

If people have truly lost control of the government whenever it puts itself in a war unnecessarily, the socialist Krueger might be addressing everybody when he asserts, "You seem to place no faith whatsoever in the political process as a means of keeping government responsible to the people. Is that really your position? Do you have no faith in the political process as a means of establishing responsibility?" Hayek is as contrary as possible on this point. "I am quite convinced that it cannot be effectively controlled by the democratic process. It requires a degree of agreement among people which we can never expect in a free society." (p. 121). One sure quality of death, particularly during wartime, is that we will never hear a live broadcast of those three thinkers on the radio again. Since television has cut attention spans, Merriam might be truer than he knew then about Hayek's chapter of THE ROAD TO SERFDOM "on `Why the Worst Get on Top,' you seem to express grave doubts about the ability of a democratic society to accomplish much. You say, for example, that the more intelligent people are, the less likely they are to agree." (p. 122). Who would be willing to apply Hayek's concluding sentence to a current catastrophe -- lacking any economic sense, but costing billions -- American activities in Iraq? "I had realized that some kind of state action is extremely dangerous. Therefore, my whole effort was to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate action. I have attempted to do that by saying that, so far as the government plans for competition or steps in where competition cannot possibly do the job, there is no objection; but I believe that all the other forms of government activity are highly dangerous." (p. 123).

Part Four starts out with some "wholly abstract problems." (p. 125). He spent years writing THE CONSTITUTION OF LIBERTY, "so that I was able to take the finished manuscript to my American publishers on my sixtieth birthday, May 8, 1959." (p. 130). Most of us were a lot younger back then, and to escape retirement at the age of 65, Hayek moved back to Germany. While the conversations quoted in this book are often after that date, they usually refer to what occurred in the years when he was most active in what was going on in the world. As a thinker, it is not surprising that he made more money than Karl Marx. The Index of Persons and Places on pages 161-170 is one of the best I have seen for explaining who each person mentioned in the book was, with more about Lord John Acton than about Achilles, and not much on Karl Marx (1818-1883). A question that he was asked in an interview printed in Reason magazine (July 1992), supposed that Joseph Schumpeter had been more right than Marx on how governments could be more responsible for "the collapse of capitalism due, not to its weakness (as Marx had predicted), but due to its strengths." (p. 154). Hayek could enjoy this paradox of Schumpeter, "that capitalism was certainly much better but it will not be allowed to last, while socialism is very bad but it is bound to come." (p. 154). Democracy allows the freedom for people to complain in ways that can inspire the government to make things worse, if I am catching the drift.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Life of Hayek, March 23, 2000

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"h9619232" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hayek on Hayek: An Autobiographical Dialogue (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek) (Hardcover)

This book about Hayek's life in Hayek's eye. It contains not only his academic life, but also his way in looking the world. This is a readable introduction to Hayek's philosophy, not because it has presented some theoies, but because it has provided the necessary introduction on this man--Hayek.