"This book tells the story of one of the most important public figures of the twentieth century. It is the first full biography of Friedrich Hayek, the Austrian economist who became the greatest philosopher of liberty in our time." "In this detailed portrait, Alan Ebenstein chronicles the life, works, and legacy of a visionary thinker, from Hayek's early years as the scholarly son of a physician in fin de siecle Vienna to his remarkable career as an economist and political philosopher in London, New York, and Chicago. It was an immensely fruitful life, set against two world wars, the Great Depression, the rise of Nazism, and, during his last years, the historic emergence of free market societies from the collapse of Communism. Throughout it all Hayek struggled - in a brilliant circle of economists, philosophers, political scientists, and other intellectuals - to come to grips with the wrenching transformations of the modern world."--Jacket.