Bruce Caldwell (editor) - Mont Pèlerin 1947: Transcripts of the Founding Meeting of the Mont Pèlerin Society

Advance Praise for Mont Plerin 1947

Imagine eavesdropping on one of the most revered and reviled conferences of the twentieth century, the gathering organized by Friedrich Hayek at Mont Plerin in 1947. Ever since, commentators have been celebrating or cursing the people attending and the ideas discussed at the famous meeting. Now thanks to Bruce Caldwell you can understand the context, read the discussion, and decide for yourself.

Douglas Irwin, professor of economics, Dartmouth College

In 1947, against the persistent specter of totalitarian regimes in Europe and a loss of faith in free markets among a large share, perhaps a majority, of American intelligentsia, capitalism was in a state of crisis. At the initiative and direction of Friedrich Hayek, in April of that year a group of thirty-nine individuals from Europe and the United States gathered in the village of Mont Plerin, Switzerland, with the aim of resuscitating the course of liberalism. That meeting would eventuate in the Mont Plerin Society, which provided the intellectual foundations of free-market thinking for the remainder of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century. To mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of the 1947 meeting, in this book Bruce Caldwell makes public for the first time the transcripts of that first meeting. Caldwell, the worlds foremost scholar of Hayeks thinking and writing, complements the carefully edited reproduction of the discussions at that founding meeting with a fascinating account of the events leading up to that gathering.

George S. Tavlas, alternate to the governor, Bank of Greece, and distinguished visiting fellow, Hoover Institution

In 1947, during the aftermath of world crisis, leading thinkers in Europe and the United States came together to diagnose and, more importantly, look forward. This record of their debates and deliberations is well worth reading amid the challenges of today.

Jennifer Burns, associate professor of history, Stanford University, and research fellow, Hoover Institution

Mont Plerin 1947

Mont Plerin 1947

Transcripts of the Founding Meeting of the Mont Plerin Society

Edited by Bruce Caldwell

Foreword by John B. Taylor

HOOVER INSTITUTION PRESS

STANFORD UNIVERSITY | STANFORD, CALIFORNIA

With its eminent scholars and world-renowned library and archives, the Hoover Institution seeks to improve the human condition by advancing ideas that promote economic opportunity and prosperity, while securing and safeguarding peace for America and all mankind. The views expressed in its publications are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff, officers, or Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution.

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Hoover Institution Press Publication No. 722

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Mont Plerin Conference (1947 : Le Mont-Plerin, Switzerland) | Caldwell, Bruce, 1952 editor.

Title: Mont Plerin 1947 : transcripts of the founding meeting of the Mont Plerin Society / edited by Bruce Caldwell.

Other titles: Hoover Institution Press publication ; 722.

Description: Stanford, California : Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, 2022. | Series: Hoover Institution Press publication ; no. 722 | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Presents transcripts from the founding meeting of the Mont Plerin Society and explains its importance in the development of 20th-century liberal thoughtProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021038039 (print) | LCCN 2021038040 (ebook) | ISBN 9780817924843 (cloth) | ISBN 9780817924867 (epub) | ISBN 9780817924881 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Mont Plerin SocietyHistorySources. | LiberalismCongresses. | Free enterpriseCongresses. | EconomicsCongresses. | LCGFT: Conference papers and proceedings.

Classification: LCC HB95 .M65 2022 (print) | LCC HB95 (ebook) | DDC 330.12/2dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021038039

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021038040

For A., T., and P., with gratitude

Contents

John B. Taylor

Bruce Caldwell

.

Foreword

John B. Taylor

It is such a joy to read this book. Bruce Caldwell has skillfully combined modern commentary with historical documents from the very first meeting held by a group of economists and other scholars at the Htel du Parc in the village of Mont-Plerin, Switzerland, during the first ten days of April 1947. He not only makes you feel as if you were present at that meeting, he also delivers insights on what we need to do now. Indeed, with all that is happening today, the Mont Plerin Society is as important now as it was at that original 1947 meeting.

The year 2022 marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the meeting. The in-person notes from the meeting as reproduced in this book are drawn from the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, and this book makes them accessible to all. Some say that the first 1947 meeting was a key event, but now the publication of the words actually spoken at that meeting allows anyonenot only those who can visit the Hoover Library & Archivesto see and read what people actually said, discussed, and debated. The people who attended the first Mont Plerin Society meeting were worried about the move of many countries toward socialist or collectivist policies. As we read this volume, we worry about the same tendency today.

Caldwells introduction to the volume fits in perfectly with the notes and essays from that first meeting. I found myself going back and forth, reading Caldwells explanation, then going to the original presentations and discussions that took place seventy-five years ago, and then back again.

The whole volume makes it crystal clear why that meeting spawned a society that continues to thrive today. It was no accident. We learn about how Friedrich Hayek was crucial in organizing the meeting and in the founding of the society. Dorothy Hahn, Hayeks secretary attended and took shorthand notes. These notes serve as a record, though they were not verbatim; they were intended mainly to indicate the general trend of the discussion, as Hayek later wrote.

We learn how as Hayek traveled to promote his book The Road to Serfdom, he talked up the idea of the meeting and raised funds for it. Hayek wanted to invite friends he knew from Vienna, who then lived in the United States, including Ludwig von Mises and Fritz Machlup. He also wanted to invite Frank Knight, Aaron Director, and Milton Friedman, who were then at the University of Chicago.