Griffiths, Simon. 2014. Engaging Enemies: Hayek and the Left. London: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781783481064 [Book]

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Abstract or Description

Friedrich Hayek is a founding figure of the neo-liberalism that flourished in the 1980s; his work influenced policy on the right and was at odds with contemporary socialism. So how did the left come to rethink Hayek’s work? And is that significant to today’s post-crisis politics?

Engaging Enemies thoroughly examines the response of the British left to the rise of Hayek’s pro-market theory. It explores the importance of attempts by the British left to rethink Hayek, and even to co-opt elements of his thought, and reveals how this encounter disrupts the link between markets and the right, and the state and the left. The book goes on to show how the left’s engagement with Hayek influenced New Labour, providing the tools to pursue a pro-market, pro-social justice agenda.

Beyond its historical narrative, the book highlights the lessons we can learn from the left’s engagement with Hayek’s work as the faith in pro-market arguments collapses during economic crisis. The limits of the left's engagement with Hayek and other neo-liberals before 1997 contain important warnings for today’s thinkers.

Item Type:	Book
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Politics
Date:	October 2014
Item ID:	10025
Date Deposited:	24 Mar 2014 09:53
Last Modified:	08 Mar 2021 10:19
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/10025

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