Ebook: The Road From Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective

What exactly is neoliberalism, and where did it come from? This volume attempts to answer these questions by exploring neoliberalism’s origins and growth as a political and economic movement.

Although modern neoliberalism was born at the “Colloque Walter Lippmann” in 1938, it only came into its own with the founding of the Mont Pèlerin Society, a partisan “thought collective,” in Vevey, Switzerland, in 1947. Its original membership was made up of transnational economists and intellectuals, including Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, George Stigler, Karl Popper, Michael Polanyi, and Luigi Einaudi. From this small beginning, their ideas spread throughout the world, fostering, among other things, the political platforms of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the Washington Consensus.

The Road from Mont Pèlerin presents the key debates and conflicts that occurred among neoliberal scholars and their political and corporate allies regarding trade unions, development economics, antitrust policies, and the influence of philanthropy. The book captures the depth and complexity of the neoliberal “thought collective” while examining the numerous ways that neoliberal discourse has come to shape the global economy.

“The volume’s contributors make heavy use of original archival materials and make good on the editors’ promise to expose the complexity, nuance and plurality of neoliberal thought―a belief system that has constructed and re-constructed itself and the world… The Road from Mont Pèlerin is indispensable for anyone wishing to gain an understanding of neoliberalism, whether as an end in itself or as a means for constructing alternative, non-neoliberal futures.”―Daniel Kinderman, Critical Policy Studies

“The Road from Mont Pèlerin reminds us that social movements succeed by drawing in many others who undertake the work that actually drives the movement forward. The book is full of stories of those individuals and related organizations that formed strategies, carried out the logistics and legwork, and brought legislators and others into contact with [Mont Pèlerin Society] ideas. In other words, if you work on post-war history of economics, there is almost no reason not to read this book.”―Ross B. Emmett, Journal of the History of Economic Thought

“The Road from Mont Pèlerin uncovers and lays bare the origins of one of the most important political phenomena of our time―the development of the neoliberal discourse coalition that has come to shape the modern political economy.”―Frank Fischer, Rutgers University

“This excellent book contributes significantly to our understanding of the origins of neoliberalism and its transformation into political discourse and policy.”―Steven Lukes, New York University

“A fascinating and important book, one that speaks in radical, perceptive, and provocative ways to contemporary debates around neoliberalism.”―Jamie Peck, University of British Columbia

Philip Mirowski is Carl Koch Professor of Economics and the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame.

Dieter Plehwe is a Senior Fellow at the Social Science Research Centre Berlin.