For Hayek, the revolt of the masses represented the failure of the 'taming of the savage'. For Röpke, newly proletarianised peasants from the countryside were a culturally alien force and a threat to a civilised society. In language that has since become all too familiar on today's anti-immigrant right, he complained that 'the country of Goethe, the Humboldts and even of Nietzsche' had been 'swamped by countless millions which came too quickly and in too great numbers to be absorbed culturally'; a 'nation', Röpke warned, 'may beget its own barbarian invaders'.

Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, loc. 173