The Constitution of Liberty.

First US edition. 8vo (240 x 165mm). 570 pp. Original grey cloth, spine lettered in gilt, dust jacket (internally clean and unmarked; some minor chipping to tips of spine panel, otherwise a near fine copy). Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.

Hayek’s 'positive statement of the principles of free society that in scope and breadth is more like a new Wealth of Nations' (dust jacket blurb), the 'masterpiece of his middle years' (Blaug). Along with The Road to Serfdom, The Constitution of Liberty became a canonical text of the neoliberal revival of the 1960s and 70s.

Hayek's Constitution of Liberty is often associated with the name of Margaret Thatcher who infamously brought her own copy of the book to a Conservative Party policy meeting, slammed it down on the table and declared, "This is what we believe." Despite the major influence of Hayek on both Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, it is apparent that they quietly disregarded Hayek's postscript to the book on 'Why I Am Not a Conservative'.

The book was written to mark the hundredth anniversary of John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, although it was in fact published a year late in 1960. A London edition by Routledge & Kegan Paul appeared in the same year with no established precedence.

Cody & Ostrem, B-12.

Stock Code: 251520