Marking the 75th anniversary of the first meeting of the Mont Pèlerin Society, in 1947, this volume presents for the first time the original transcripts from this landmark event. The society was created by Friedrich Hayek as a forum for leading liberal economists and intellectuals to discuss and debate the future of liberalism and the liberal order in the face of a rapidly changing world and political trends toward socialism og new totalitarian threats.

Bruce Caldwell, a major scholar of Hayek, provides an informative introduction and explanatory notes to the source documents, drawn from the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, where they have been available to scholars. Now accessible to all, the transcripts reveal what was said on a wide range of topics, including free markets, monetary reform, income and wage policy, taxation, agricultural policy, the future of Germany, European federation, Christianity and liberalism, the present political crisis and more. They provide insights into the thinking of men such as Hayek, Milton Friedman, Aaron Director, Frank Knight, Walter Eucken, Wilhelm Röpke, Karl Popper, and other leading figures in the liberal tradition of ideas, illuminating not only their ideas but also their distinctive personalities. A photo section shows rarely seen images from the meeting.