Hayek vs Keynes
A Battle of Ideas
Thomas HoerberA clear-eyed account of the totemic economic thinkers Hayek and Keynes.
Now in paperback, this is a clear historical account of the works of the two great totems of modern economic thought: Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes. Thomas Hoerber explains the historical context in which Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and Keynes’s The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money were written, and shows how lessons can be drawn for current economic and political phenomena such as the recent financial crisis, globalization and European integration. The book also illustrates how classical economic theory as well as a qualitative method can enlighten our understanding of the present economic environment. Hayek vs Keynes places the two great economic thinkers of the twentieth century in their historical context, and asks what we can learn from their work today.
A clear-eyed account of the totemic economic thinkers Hayek and Keynes.
Now in paperback, this is a clear historical account of the works of the two great totems of modern economic thought: Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes. Thomas Hoerber explains the historical context in which Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and Keynes’s The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money were written, and shows how lessons can be drawn for current economic and political phenomena such as the recent financial crisis, globalization and European integration. The book also illustrates how classical economic theory as well as a qualitative method can enlighten our understanding of the present economic environment. Hayek vs Keynes places the two great economic thinkers of the twentieth century in their historical context, and asks what we can learn from their work today.
A clear-eyed account of the totemic economic thinkers Hayek and Keynes.
Now in paperback, this is a clear historical account of the works of the two great totems of modern economic thought: Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes. Thomas Hoerber explains the historical context in which Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and Keynes’s The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money were written, and shows how lessons can be drawn for current economic and political phenomena such as the recent financial crisis, globalization and European integration. The book also illustrates how classical economic theory as well as a qualitative method can enlighten our understanding of the present economic environment. Hayek vs Keynes places the two great economic thinkers of the twentieth century in their historical context, and asks what we can learn from their work today.
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Where Hoerber is correct is when he asserts that the great differences between Keynes and Hayek are relevant to today’s world.
'Wall Street Journal
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The shock of the Great Depression led to intellectual tumult as economists tried to understand the causes and recommend responses. To Keynes, economic narrative offered a better approach than mathematics to Hayek, the problem was too little abstraction. To Keynes, people could work together within the framework of the state to Hayek, the answer was to operate within the free market. The shock of the Great Recession has not had the same impact on economics, with mathematical modelling remaining in the ascendant, and the state more often seen as the disease than the cure. Thomas Hoerber's analysis of these two giants of the history of economics makes us reflect on the crisis of our own time as much as on the world they inhabited.
'Martin Daunton, Professor of Economic History, University of Cambridge
Introduction
1 From the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century: Momentous Change and Stable Elements
2 Hayek’s Road to Liberty
3 Information and Planning
4 Keynes’s General Theory
5 Man is Not the Master of His Own Fate: Misguided Socialist Idealism
6 Liberal Polemic, or, the Threat of National Socialism
7 The Necessity of Planning
8 Liberty and Totalitarianism
Thomas Hoerber is Professor in European Studies at ESSCA School of Management in Angers, France. He is the author of five books, including The Foundations of Europe (2006) and European Space Policy: European Integration and the Final Frontier (2015).