Back on the Road to Serfdom: The Resurgence of Statism

Leviathan is back

The threat of statism has reemerged in force. The federal government has radically expanded its power—through bailouts, “stimulus” packages, a trillion-dollar health-care plan, “jobs bills,” massive expansions of the money supply, and much more. But such interventionism did not suddenly materialize with the recent economic collapse. The dangerous trends of government growth, debt increases, encroachments on individual liberty, and attacks on the free market began years earlier and continued no matter which political party was in power.

This shift toward statism “will not end happily,” declares bestselling author Thomas E. Woods. In Back on the Road to Serfdom, Woods brings together ten top scholars to examine why the size and scope of government has exploded, and to reveal the devastating consequences of succumbing to the statist temptation.

Spanning history, economics, politics, religion, and the arts, Back on the Road to Serfdom shows:
· How government interventionism endangers America’s prosperity and the vital culture of entrepreneurship
· The roots of statism: from the seminal conflict between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton to the vast expansion of federal power in the twentieth century
· Why the standard explanation for the recent economic crisis is so terribly wrong—and why the government’s frenzied responses to the downturn only exacerbate the problems
· Why the European welfare state is not a model to aspire to but a disaster to be avoided
· How an intrusive state not only harms the economy but also imperils individual liberty and undermines the role of civil society
· The fatal flaws in the now-common arguments against free markets and free trade
· How big business is helping government pave the road to serfdom
· Why the Judeo-Christian tradition does not demand support for the welfare state, but in fact values the free market
· How the arrogance of government power extends even to the cultural realm—and how central planning is just as inefficient and destructive there

It’s been more than sixty-five years since F. A. Hayek published his seminal work The Road to Serfdom. Now this impeccably timed book provides another desperately needed warning about—and corrective to—the dangers of statism.