From Weight Watchers to State Watchers: Towards a Narrative of Liberalism

A review essay on: Alan S. Kahan. Mind vs. Money: The War between Intellectuals and Capitalism. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. 2010.

Daniel B. Klein

Alan Kahan's Mind vs. Money: The War between Intellectuals and Capitalism (Transaction Publishers, 2010) treats intellectuals as a class, and tells of intellectuals' yearning to play the role of cleric and of aristocrat. Kahan says that intellectuals are necessarily alienated from "capitalism." In this essay I discuss Kahan's erudite and insightful - though sometimes exasperating - work, and I take the opportunity to develop some ideas on the topic, ideas in line with Hayek's thought.

Keywords: Intellectuals, capitalism, liberalism, statism, Hayek.

JEL codes: A1, B0

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