Neoliberalism broke sharply with prewar classical liberalism rather than continuing it

Evidence

The purpose of the MPS and the Free Market Study was to debate possible trajectories for the future of liberalism, not prematurely chisel them in stone. Nevertheless, some striking departures from classical liberalism grew out of the MPS and/or the Chicago School, and these have direct bearing on the widespread impression that there subsisted political continuity with prewar liberals like Simons, or indeed, Frank Knight. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 778

Categorization

• XREF: Challenges the continuity thesis linking Chicago to Simons and Knight; relevant to debates on whether postwar neoliberalism is genuinely new. — connects to: Early liberals shared an unresolved ambivalence about the state that seeded austerity — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 269; Neoliberals rejected classical liberalism’s rationalism in favor of critical conventionalism. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 90; Early neoliberals rejected laissez-faire and wanted strong state action (+11 more)
• QUESTION: Worth tracing specifically how Chicago broke with Frank Knight’s classical liberalism, not just Simons.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism reversed classical liberalism’s suspicion of monopoly and corporate power. #exemplifies (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2133
• Neoliberalism inverted classical liberalism by defending monopoly and corporate power #exemplifies (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 175
• German ordoliberalism inverted the classical liberal problem of limiting the state #qualifies (0.70) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 560