Chicago doyens read Hayek’s Road to Serfdom as dogmatic and politically naive

Evidence

Upon encountering Hayek’s Road to Serfdom several years later, Viner wrote to a friend that the book “overargues his case” and was riddled with “dogmas,” and Knight told the publisher that it insuffi ciently recognized “the necessity, as well as po liti cal inevitability, of a wide range of governmental activity in relation to economic life in the future,” instead dealing “only with the simpler fallacies.” They could hardly have made their opinions clearer. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 90

Categorization

• XREF: Complicates the standard alliance story the reader will map across From the New Deal and the Mont Pèlerin history. — connects to: Chicago economists rejected Hayek because Road to Serfdom was too popular a work — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 786; Hayek’s public image was constructed by political appropriation, not his own text — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 228; The Road to Serfdom’s vagueness enabled its selective partisan misreading — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 234 (+1 more)
• QUESTION: Did Knight’s and Viner’s private misgivings about Hayek shape how Chicago engaged MPS, or were they set aside?

Broader Connections

• Chicago economists rejected Hayek because Road to Serfdom was too popular a work #qualifies (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 786
• Hayek’s public image was constructed by political appropriation, not his own text #expands (0.82) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 228
• The Road to Serfdom’s vagueness enabled its selective partisan misreading #corroborates (0.80) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 234
• Hayek denied that The Road to Serfdom opposed all government intervention #complicates (0.72) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 229