March 12, 2004

Hayek & the NY Times Book Review. Bruce Bartlett in a comment suggest that it's something of an exageration to say that Friedrich Hayek has been banned from the New York Times Book Review. Well, lets take a look. Between 1961 and and 1989 Friedrich Hayek wrote four books and published several important collections of essays. In the period between 1989 and today there have been more than a dozen books written on Hayek, and more than half a dozen volumes of his collected writings. In my view Hayek's Law, Legislation and Liberty (1973-1979) and his two major collections of essays -- Studies (1969) and New Studies (1978) -- are among his most intellectually significant works. And Hayek's popular The Fatal Conceit was Hayek's most widely praised book since The Road to Serfdom -- folks like Tom Peters simply raved about the book. But not one of these books was ever given a review in the NY Times Book Review.

And what of that shelf of books written on Hayek by other authors? Not a one reviewed or even mentioned in the NY Times Book Review.

Take a look through the NY Times archives and check for yourself.

It's quite true that when hard core free market advocate Henry Hazlitt regularly wrote lead book reviews for the NY Times -- 60 years ago -- a little book by Hayek titled The Road to Serfdom was reviewed in the Times. But that was several generations ago -- and a very, very different NY Times Book review. We haven't seen the likes of that since well before most of us were born. By the time the 1960's came around, the NY Times assigned its review of Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty not to Hazlitt or any other author sympathetic to Hayek and capitalism -- but instead to a hard-core true believing socialist, who not unsurprisingly didn't look with any favor on a book seeking to defend capitalism. And then -- complete blackball. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack