Hayek

A 2022 Economist Best Book of the Year.
The definitive account of the distinguished economist's formative years.

Few twentieth-century figures have been lionized and vilified in such equal measure as Friedrich Hayek-economist, social theorist, leader of the Austrian school of economics, and champion of classical liberalism. Hayek's erudite arguments in support of individualism and the market economy have attracted a devout following, including many at the levers of power in business and government. Critics, meanwhile, cast Hayek as the intellectual forefather of "neoliberalism" and of all the evils they associate with that pernicious doctrine. 

In Hayek: A Life, historians of economics Bruce Caldwell and Hansjorg Klausinger draw on never-before-seen archival and family material to produce an authoritative account of the influential economist's first five decades. This includes portrayals of his early career in Vienna; his relationships in London and Cambridge; his family disputes; and definitive accounts of the creation of The Road to Serfdom and of the founding meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society. 

A landmark work of history and biography, Hayek: A Life is a major contribution both to our cultural accounting of a towering figure and to intellectual history itself. 

About the Authors

Bruce Caldwell is research professor of economics and the director of the Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University. He is the general editor of the Collected Works of F. A. Hayek series, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Hansjoerg Klausinger is associate professor emeritus in the Department of Economics at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.