In the history of modern liberal thought, the work of F.A. Hayek stands out as among the most significant since that of J.S. Mill. In this book, Kukathas critically examines the nature and coherence of Hayek's defense of liberal principles, attempting both to identify its weaknesses and to show why it makes an important contribution to contemporary political theory. Kukathas argues that Hayek's defense of liberalism is unsuccessful because it rests on presuppositions that are philosophically incompatible. In his view, the unresolved dilemma of Hayek's political philosophy is how to mount a systematic defense of liberalism if one emphasizes the limited capacity of human reason. Hayek's social philosophy, he argues, offers a significant theory of the nature of social processes, and is therefore an important account of how this must constrain our choice of political principles.

《通往奴役之路》（The Road to Serfdom）是诺贝尔经济学奖得主弗里德里克·哈耶克的最知名著作，这本书最先在1944年于英国由Routledge Press出版，接著在1944年9月由芝加哥大学出版。读者文摘在1945年4月也出版了稍微减缩的版本，最后总共销售超过600,000本。Look杂志在1950年左右出版了加上图片的版本，后来又被通用汽车公司以小册子形式大量发放。这本书被翻译成超过20种语言出版，哈耶克称要将这本书献给“所有党派的社会主义者”读一读。该书的第50周年纪念版本则由米尔顿·佛利民（另一名诺贝尔奖得主）撰写序言。《通往奴役之路》一书是对古典自由主义和自由意志主义理论的阐述中最著名、而又最受欢迎的书籍之一。