The Road to Serfdom

A memo Friedrich A. von Hayek wrote to William Beveridge at the London School of Economics grew into his case that central economic planning leads to tyranny, and that abandoning individualism and classical liberalism ends in an oppressive society and the serfdom of the individual. Against a view common among British Marxists, that fascism was a capitalist reaction to socialism, Hayek traces fascism, Nazism and state socialism to shared roots in planning and in empowering the state over the person. Routledge published it in Britain in March 1944, the University of Chicago Press followed that September, and a condensed version in Reader's Digest in April 1945 carried it to a mass audience.

Elon Musk included it in a list of audiobook recommendations he posted on X.