Dr. Alan Ebenstein

Having read only a condensed version of ”The Road to Serfdom” and a few pages from his works on the Mises.org website, I thought this book might be a good introduction to Hayek’s ideas. My impression is that it is not. Though the author has previously written a “straight” biography of Hayek, and this book is subtitled “The Mind of Friedrich Hayek,” it is only to a small degree an attempt to expound upon the man’s ideas. It is more a sort of “working life biography” showing the different intellectual environment in which his books were produced, how they were received etc. It ends with a long attack on a collaborator of Hayek who is accused of severely altering his ideas in his last works.
I might have liked it had I known more about it before buying, or had been better prepared with appropriate knowledge, as it is I feel reading it was mostly a waste of time.… (más)

Having read this book without first reading Ebenstein's companion biography on Hayek, perhaps my criticism is not fully warranted, but this book seemed to fall a little short. Hayek is unarguably a fascinating thinker and my hope when picking this up was to learn how that thinking developed: how for example did he wrestle to change from his early socialist leanings when confronted with the problem of economic calculation. There is a lot of interesting factual information to be found in the book, but it is disjointed and ultimately a little frustrating to read. Perhaps Ebenstein's companion biography on Hayak's life reads a little smoother and expresses more of a compelling narrative, and this is just an unfortunate result of a failed biographical mind body split.

All this being said I still think many will still find the book worth a read. There is much to be gained in exploring Hayek - kind of like if I were to take a photograph of a supper model with a point and shoot camera, I'd end up with a picture worth viewing, but not because of my exemplary photographic skills. Eberstein doesn't take the greatest picture of Hayek but based on the merit of the subject I'd still recommend taking a look.… (más)