ROAD TO REACTION

An exciting book -- and a much-needed one, -- the atomic bomb to explode the thesis of the reactionaries' Mein Kamp, Hayek's Road to Serfdom. Those unfamiliar with Hayek will find him fairly quoted (examination of the original proves this) -- and Finer has convicted him with his own words, as he takes him apart with a surgeon's scalpel. He accuses him -- he condemns him for distortion of truth, misuse of quotations, actually having an antipathy for democracy where the people dare plan. He shows how Hayek calls planning socialism, communism, collectivism, totalitarianism, fascism indisorminately. And in final analysis, he proves that Hayek endorses an autocratic rather than democratic rule-yes, even the good old days in Germany. Finer accuses Hayek of manipulating facts to prove that any plan is an imposed thing and cannot spring from vitals of a democratic people. And throughout -- while tearing down the thesis of reaction, Finer substitutes a positive argument for democracy, freedom of thought, expression for the majority as well as the minority.