Books in Brief

Influence is one of the touchstones of Ebenstein’s balanced and thoughtful biography, which is less a linear unfolding of Hayek’s life than a tracing of the lives that influenced Hayek, and the lives of those whose philosophies he, in turn, helped to shape. Ebenstein gets off to a rocky start, filling his opening chapters with questionably organized facts and odd non sequiturs. But he hits his stride in the later chapters, especially his well-informed section on Hayek’s Constitution of Liberty (1960), a work that is arguably just as important to conservative thought as the better-known Road to Serfdom. He also takes pains to explain Hayek’s philosophical differences with much of the conservatism of his day; he was more a classic liberal—believing in the economy of the invisible hand and the freedom of the individual, including a philosophy of free inquiry—than an adherent to custom, convention, and continuity. The overall tone is one of fairness, and the author does not fail to take issue with Hayek where he believes his positions are weak. And if Ebenstein’s concluding claim that “the libertarian age is at hand” is excessive, he is on target when he writes that Hayek’s written canon “will serve as a beacon to enlighten centuries.” —James E. Person Jr.

NATIONAL REVIEW

Influence is one of the touchstones of Ebenstein’s balanced and thoughtful biography, which is less a linear unfolding of Hayek’s life than a tracing of the lives that influenced Hayek, and the lives of those whose philosophies he, in turn, helped to shape. Ebenstein gets off to a rocky start, filling his opening chapters with questionably organized facts and odd non sequiturs. But he hits his stride in the later chapters, especially his well-informed section on Hayek’s Constitution of Liberty (1960), a work that is arguably just as important to conservative thought as the better-known Road to Serfdom. He also takes pains to explain Hayek’s philosophical differences with much of the conservatism of his day; he was more a classic liberal—believing in the economy of the invisible hand and the freedom of the individual, including a philosophy of free inquiry—than an adherent to custom, convention, and continuity. The overall tone is one of fairness, and the author does not fail to take issue with Hayek where he believes his positions are weak. And if Ebenstein’s concluding claim that “the libertarian age is at hand” is excessive, he is on target when he writes that Hayek’s written canon “will serve as a beacon to enlighten centuries.” —James E. Person Jr.

NATIONAL REVIEW