Politics · Similar reads
Books like The Road to Serfdom
The best books like The Road to Serfdom are The Prince, The Republic, and Thinking, Fast and Slow. The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek is about liberalism, central planning, totalitarianism. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- The Prince
01
Niccolò Machiavelli · Philosophy
The Prince is Machiavelli's short treatise on how to acquire, hold, and exercise political power.
A kindred politics read.
Read the summary → - The Republic
02
Plato · Philosophy
The Republic is Plato's most ambitious work, a sustained inquiry into the nature of justice staged as a dialogue among Socrates and his companions in Athens.
A kindred politics read.
Read the summary → - Thinking, Fast and Slow
03
Daniel Kahneman · Psychology
Thinking, Fast and Slow is Daniel Kahneman's account of the two cognitive systems that govern human thought.
A kindred politics read.
Read the summary →
- On Liberty
04
John Stuart Mill · Philosophy
On Liberty, published in 1859, is John Stuart Mill's defense of individual freedom against both governmental coercion and social pressure.
Shares liberalism and individual freedom with The Road to Serfdom.
Read the summary → - The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It
05
The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It
Yascha Mounk · Politics
Yascha Mounk argues that liberal democracy — the marriage of individual rights with popular self-government — is coming apart.
Both dig into liberalism.
Read the summary → - 1984
06
George Orwell · Philosophy
Nineteen Eighty-Four is George Orwell's 1949 novel about a future England called Airstrip One, governed by the totalitarian Party under the figurehead Big Brother.
Both dig into totalitarianism.
Read the summary → - Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
07
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
Timothy Snyder · History
Bloodlands is Timothy Snyder's account of the territories between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union — principally Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states — where the two regimes' violence overlapped between 1933 and 1945.
Both dig into totalitarianism.
Read the summary → - Gulag: A History
08
Anne Applebaum · History
Anne Applebaum's Gulag is the first comprehensive English-language history of the Soviet forced labor camp system, drawing on KGB archives opened briefly after 1991, survivor memoirs, and interviews with former prisoners and guards.
Both dig into totalitarianism.
Read the summary → - Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944–1956
09
Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944–1956
Anne Applebaum · History
Iron Curtain is Anne Applebaum's account of how the Soviet Union destroyed civil society and imposed communist rule across Eastern Europe between 1944 and 1956.
Both dig into totalitarianism.
Read the summary → - Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
10
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Azar Nafisi · Memoir
Azar Nafisi spent years teaching literature at universities in Tehran before the restrictions on what she could teach — and who she could teach — became intolerable.
Both dig into totalitarianism.
Read the summary → - The Captive Mind
11
Czesław Miłosz · History
The Captive Mind is Czesław Miłosz's study of how intellectuals living under Soviet-imposed communism in postwar Eastern Europe came to accommodate, justify, and eventually internalize the ideology they had initially resisted.
Both dig into totalitarianism.
Read the summary → - The Gulag Archipelago
12
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · History
The Gulag Archipelago is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's monumental account of the Soviet forced-labor camp system.
Both dig into totalitarianism.
Read the summary →
Books like The Road to Serfdom: quick answers
What are the best books like The Road to Serfdom?
The best books like The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek are The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, The Republic by Plato, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, On Liberty by John Stuart Mill, The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It by Yascha Mounk, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Road to Serfdom, such as liberalism, central planning, totalitarianism.
What should I read after The Road to Serfdom?
A natural next read after The Road to Serfdom is The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. A kindred politics read. Other strong choices are The Republic by Plato, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, On Liberty by John Stuart Mill.
What books are similar to The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek?
The Road to Serfdom centers on liberalism, central planning, totalitarianism. Books with a similar feel include The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, The Republic by Plato, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, On Liberty by John Stuart Mill, The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It by Yascha Mounk, 1984 by George Orwell — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
