Description

The Road to Serfdom is a book written by Friedrich Hayek (recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974) which has significantly shaped the political ideologies of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the concepts of 'Reagonomics' and 'Thatcherism'. It also led to the revival of Neoclassical economics in the West and lessening the Keynesian influence. The Road to Serfdom is among the most influential and popular expositions of classical liberalism and libertarianism.

The book was originally published by Routledge Press in March 1944 in the UK and then by the University of Chicago in September 1944. In April, 1945, Reader's Digest published a slightly shortened version of the book (still in print from the Institute of Economic Affairs), which eventually reached more than 600,000 readers. Around 1950 a picture-book version was published in Look Magazine, later made into a pamphlet and distributed by General Motors. The book has been translated into approximately 20 languages and is dedicated to "The socialists of all parties". The introduction to the 50th anniversary edition is written by Milton Friedman (another recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics [1976]). In 2007, the University of Chicago Press put out a "Definitive Edition".