"the road to serfdom" was to be a popular edition of the second volume of hayek’s "the abuse and decline of reason". the title was inspired by the writings of the 19th century french classical liberal alexis de tocqueville on the "road to servitude".p116 the book was first published in britain by routledge in march 1944, during world war ii, and was quite popular. hayek called it "that unobtainable book", due to wartime paper rationing.p128