Hayek's Journey: The Mind of Friedrich Hayek

The author of an eponymous biography of the influential 20th-century political thinker and economist Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992), Ebenstein here delivers an analysis of the intellectual influences and legacy of this philosopher of liberty. Covering much of Hayek's philosophy beyond his continuing currency in monetary and trade cycle theory, this volume serves as an illuminating supplement to Ebenstein's previous book.""Nobody can be a great economist who is only an economist,"" Hayek remarked, and Ebenstein elaborates on this assertion, exploring the evolution of Hayek's ideas from a childhood among Darwinists to his flirtation with Vienna Circle thinkers (such as his cousin Ludwig Wittgenstein), to his relationships with Karl Popper and the Chicago School of Economics. Though often repetitive and unclear in his analysis of the pure philosophical elements in Hayek's background, Ebenstein traces Hayek's intellectual relationship to political thinkers such as Mill, Marx and Keynes with an erudite clarity. Crowned by a series of chapters examining Hayek's later political works, this deeply researched and well-documented intellectual history lays out the classical liberal discussions of Hayek's lifetime and offers a compelling and scholarly critical examination of the current debates in the Hayek literature.