The Road to Serfdom
London: George Routledge & Sons Limited, 1944.
First edition, first printing of the most important libertarian book of the 20th century. Precedes by several months the American edition published by the University of Chicago. viii, 184 pp., printed on speckled wartime paper. Bound in publisher's black cloth lettered in gilt on spine. Near Fine with slight bumping to corners, crimping at head and tail of spine. Faint foxing to textblock edges, and occasional pencil marks to margins. In a very scarce Near Fine dust jacket with light edgewear, toning, and faint foxing.
Friedrich August von Hayek wrote The Road to Serfdom while teaching at the London School of Economics during the Second World War. He fervently believed that the development of a strong and proactive central government would lead inexorably to tyranny, countering the prevailing wisdom that state intervention was necessarily for a more just society. Hayek's clarion call sold well, but wartime paper rationing limited the extent of its reach in Britain. First printings, particularly with a dust jacket in such nice condition, are rare.
Price: $30,000