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scarcely sufficiently aware. This is the fact that the majority of economists have now for some years been absorbed by the war machine, and silenced by their official positions, and that in consequence public opinion on these problems is to an alarming extent guided by amateurs and cranks, by people who have an ax to grind or a pet panacea to sell. In these circumstances one who still has the leisure for literary work is hardly entitled to keep to himself apprehensions which current tendencies must create in the minds of many who cannot publicly express them—though in different circumstances I should have gladly left the discussion of questions of national policy to those who are both better authorized and better qualified for the task.

The central argument of this book was first sketched in an article entitled “Freedom and the Economic System,” which appeared in the Contemporary Review for April, 1938, and was later reprinted in an enlarged form as one of the “Public Policy Pamphlets” edited by Professor H. D. Gideonse for the University of Chicago Press (1939).2 I have to thank the editors and publishers of both these publications for permission to reproduce certain passages from them.

F. A. Hayek

1 [This preface appeared in the British, Australian, and American editions. —Ed.]

2 [F. A. Hayek, “Freedom and the Economic System,” Contemporary Review, April 1938, pp. 434– 42; reprinted as chapter 8 of F. A. Hayek, Socialism and War: Essays, Documents, Reviews, op. cit., pp. 181–88. F. A. Hayek, Freedom and the Economic System (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939), Public Policy Pamphlet No. 29 in the series edited by Harry D. Gideonse; reprinted as chapter 9 ibid., pp. 189–211. —Ed.]

FOREWORD TO THE 1956

AMERICAN PAPERBACK EDITION

Although this book might in some respects have been different if I had written it in the first instance with American readers primarily in mind, it has by now made for itself too definite if unexpected a place in this country to make any rewriting advisable. Its republication in a new form, however, more than ten years after its first appearance, is perhaps an appropriate occasion for explaining its original aim and for a few comments on the altogether unforeseen and in many ways curious success it has had in this country.

The book was written in England during the war years and was designed almost exclusively for English readers. Indeed, it was addressed mainly to a very special class of readers in England. It was in no spirit of mockery that I dedicated it “To the Socialists of All Parties.” It had its origin in many discussions which, during the preceding ten years, I had with friends and colleagues whose sympathies had been inclined toward the left, and it was in continuation of those arguments that I wrote The Road to Serfdom.

When Hitler came into power in Germany, I had already been teaching at the University of London for several years, but I kept in close touch with affairs on the Continent and was able to do so until the outbreak of war.1 What I had thus seen of the origins and evolution of the various totalitarian movements made me feel that English public opinion, particularly among my friends who held “advanced” views on social matters, completely misconceived the nature of those movements. Even before the war I was led by this to state in a brief essay what became the central argument of this book.2 But after war broke out I felt that this widespread misunderstanding of the political systems of our enemies, and soon also of our new ally, Russia, constituted a serious danger which had to be met by a more systematic effort. Also, it was already fairly obvious that England herself was likely to experiment after the war with the same kind of policies which I was convinced had contributed so much to destroy liberty elsewhere.

Thus this book gradually took shape as a warning to the socialist intelligentsia of England; with the inevitable delays of wartime production, it finally appeared there early in the spring of 1944. This date will, incidentally, also