The University of Chicago Press has just re-released a new printing of F.A. Hayek’s classic, The Road to Serfdom. The Chronicle of Higher Education, in reviewing this new edition,
points out that the University of Chicago Press originally was advised
not to publish by “a prominent economist” who said “it wouldn’t sell”
back in 1944 when Hayek submitted it.
As The Road to Serfdom, a seminal volume in modern libertarian
thought, was wending its way to publication in Britain, three American
university presses turned it down. Chicago decided to go ahead despite
a review from a prominent economist at the university who said it
wouldn’t sell. The original print run was gone in a month, and Chicago
went on to sell more than 350,000 copies over the years. Some 600,000
more were distributed in condensed form via Reader’s Digest, and the book has been translated into more than 20 languages.
