Road to Serfdom, The - Hayek, F. A. & Caldwell, Bruce [2]
Each volume in The Collected Works is intended to be a definitive presentation of Hayek’s work. As such, when the University of Chicago Press proposed that we add the subtitle “The Definitive Edition” I initially resisted, thinking it in-appropriate to single out this volume from the rest. The Road to Serfdom is unique, however, in that it is the only piece of Hayek’s work to go through numerous editions: the original one in 1944, another in 1956 to which Hayek added a foreword, a 1976 edition to which he added a new preface, and the 1994 50th anniversary edition which carried an introduction by Milton Friedman. The subtitle was added, and I hope that this will always be considered the definitive edition. History suggests, however, that it may not be the last one.
Many have been involved in helping me get started as the new general editor. I owe a special debt to Mrs. Dorothy Morris of the Morris Foundation, Little Rock, who provided me with the “seed money” needed to initiate a search for additional funding for the project. As has been documented in forewords to preceding volumes in the series, Dorothy’s husband Walter Morris was instrumental in the creation of The Collected Works project, and the Morris Foundation has been constant in its support throughout the years. I first sought financial support for the project at the Mont Pèlerin meetings in London in October 2002, and John Blundell of the Institute of Economic Affairs provided me both advice on how to proceed and assistance in arranging for a fellowship to help defray the costs of attendance. The meeting ultimately led me to David Kennedy and Ingrid Gregg of the Earhart Foundation, and to Emilio Pacheco of the Liberty Fund and the Pierre F. and Enid Goodrich Foundation. These organizations have provided the lion’s share of support for the project. Finally, Stephen Kresge has been an advisor, mentor, sounding board, and friend throughout the very long transition from second to third general editor, and beyond. To all of them my most sincere thanks.
I also would like to thank the following people and organizations for granting their permission to reproduce materials and quote from letters: Mr. Frank B. Knight for permission to reproduce Frank Knight’s reader’s report on The Road to Serfdom; Dr. Thomas Marschak for permission to reproduce Jacob Marschak’s reader’s report on The Road to Serfdom; Mr. David Michaelis for permission to quote from Ordway Tead’s letter of September 25, 1943, to Fritz Machlup; and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace for permission to quote from materials contained in the Hoover Institution Archives.
Last but not least, I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Emily Wilcox and Jason Schenker in preparing the manuscript.
Bruce Caldwell
Greensboro, NC
INTRODUCTION
The Road to Serfdom is F. A. Hayek’s most well-known book, but its origins were decidedly inauspicious. It began as a memo to the director of the London School of Economics, Sir William Beveridge, written by Hayek in the early 1930s and disputing the then-popular claim that fascism represented the dying gasp of a failed capitalist system. The memo grew into a magazine article, and parts of it were supposed to be incorporated into a much larger book, but during World War II he decided to bring it out separately. Though Hayek had no problem getting Routledge to publish the book in England, three American publishing houses rejected the manuscript before the University of Chicago Press finally accepted it.
The book was written for a British audience, so the director of the Press, Joseph Brandt, did not expect it to be a big seller in the States. Brandt hoped to get the well-known New York Herald Tribune journalist and author Walter Lippmann to write the foreword, noting in an internal memo that if he did, it might sell between two and three thousand copies. Otherwise, he estimated, it might sell nine hundred. Unfortunately, Lippmann was busy with his own work and so turned him down, as did the 1940 Republican presidential