Hayek's Bastards

Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right

By: Quinn Slobodian

Narrated by: Justin Avoth

This audiobook narrated by Justin Avoth explores how neoliberals turned to nature to defend inequality after the end of the Cold War

Neoliberals should have seen the end of the Cold War as a total victory—but they didn't. Instead, they saw the chameleon of communism changing colors from red to green. The poison of civil rights, feminism, and environmentalism ran through the veins of the body politic and they needed an antidote.

To defy demands for equality, many neoliberals turned to nature. Race, intelligence, territory, and precious metal would be bulwarks against progressive politics. Reading and misreading the writings of their sages, Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, they articulated a philosophy of three hards—hardwired human nature, hard borders, and hard money—and forged the alliances with racial psychologists, neoconfederates, ethnonationalists, and goldbugs that would become known as the alt-right.

Following Hayek's bastards from Murray Rothbard to Charles Murray to Javier Milei, we find that key strains of the Far Right emerged within the neoliberal intellectual movement not against it. What has been reported as an ideological backlash against neoliberal globalization in recent years is often more of a frontlash. This history of ideas shows us that the reported clash of opposites is more like a family feud.

©2025 Quinn Slobodian (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Fascinating. . . . Slobodian's book draws our attention to what might appear an astonishing fact. . . that it has proven very easy to support capitalism while being hostile to other fundamental liberal liberties."—Matt McManus, Illiberalism

"Indispensable. . . . Entertaining. Slobodian's wry commentary offers welcome respite from both the difficulty and the moral odiousness of his subject."—Becca Rothfeld, Washington Post

"Quinn Slobodian has established himself as one of the sharpest intellectual historians of neoliberalism."—Bartolomeo Sala, Jacobin

X-Ray Vision

This book adroitly sees through the smokescreens the rising right-wing reactionary movements use to hide their deeper goals, which often seem distantly connected to their outward signs. He succinctly pieces the bigger picture together.

A timely reminder that behind the grifters and goons on the Main-Stage are men with a more fleshed out, cohesive, and vicious agenda than often surfaces in popular culture