The Austrian-born British free market economist and social philosopher, Nobel Laureate Friedrich Auguste von Hayek (1899-1992) was one of the most distinguished social thinkers of the 20th century.

Friedrich A. von Hayek was born on May 8, 1899, in Vienna into a modest family that could lay claim to a great academic tradition. He left school to enlist in World War I in March 1917. Shortly after returning from the Italian front in November 1918 he began to study law at the University of Vienna. Hayek obtained his Juris Doctor degree only three years later, but continued to study political science, receiving his second doctorate from the same university in 1923.

Hayek in 1921 helped found the "Geistkreis," a small circle of young social scientists in Vienna. More than half of its participants later became world-famous. In 1923 Hayek visited New York and worked part-time as a research assistant at New York University. Greatly stimulated...