As a star pupil of the distinguished economist Friedrich von Wieser and one of the most active members of a regular Privatseminar on economic theory and socialscientifi c methodology that Ludwig von Mises held for young Viennese intellectuals beginning in 1924, Hayek had developed an impressive range of connections throughout the Austrian academic world. He also was unusually discursive in Anglo- American po liti cal economy, in part because of connections formed during an extended research visit to New York City in 1923– 1924 and at international conferences in subsequent years. Nevertheless, at the time he was still a young and littlepublished economist caught within an Austrian academic system that was notorious for making the journey to a professorship lengthy and penurious. Outside his native country Hayek's scholarship remained largely obscure.

Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, loc. 65