Hayek’s obscurity in 1931 belied his dense Viennese network

Evidence

As a star pupil of the distinguished economist Friedrich von Wieser and one of the most active members of a regular Privatseminar on economic theory and socialscientifi c methodology that Ludwig von Mises held for young Viennese intellectuals beginning in 1924, Hayek had developed an impressive range of connections throughout the Austrian academic world. He also was unusually discursive in Anglo- American po liti cal economy, in part because of connections formed during an extended research visit to New York City in 1923– 1924 and at international conferences in subsequent years. Nevertheless, at the time he was still a young and littlepublished economist caught within an Austrian academic system that was notorious for making the journey to a professorship lengthy and penurious. Outside his native country Hayek’s scholarship remained largely obscure. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 65

Categorization

• SHARE: For a colleague into intellectual history: how the Mises Privatseminar seeded Hayek’s whole network before his first LSE lecture.
• XREF: connects to: Hayek’s 1931 LSE lectures were poorly understood yet intellectually exciting — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 66; Rockefeller Foundation subsidized Hayek’s networking from his Vienna years onward — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 863; Hayek functioned as the intellectual bridge linking ordoliberalism to the wider neoliberal network — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 616 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Rockefeller Foundation subsidized Hayek’s networking from his Vienna years onward #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 863
• Business elites actively cultivated Hayek and promoted his ideas widely #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 875
• Hayek functioned as the intellectual bridge linking ordoliberalism to the wider neoliberal network #expands (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 616
• Reputation as a Keynesian can mask an earlier Austrian-network allegiance. #corroborates (0.72) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 293