History of the Austrian School of Economics

Book Review by Greg Kaza
Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics

Critics of neoliberalism and its variants including Misesianism have responded to its emergence in two distinct ways: pejoratively,1 or scholarly discourse that seeks to engage neoliberal proponents. The first approach is traceable to the Marxists Kapelush (1925) and Marcuse ([1934] 1968). This low road has been traveled more recently by Krohn (1981), Delong (2009) and Seymour (2010), who, a la Marcuse, smear Mises as pro-fascist when government and private archives show the Austrian worked with U.S. intelligence against Italian fascism and German Nazism in the World War II era.

This paper analyzes the period 1867–1879 in American economic history from an "Austrian" perspective.

John Cochran discusses his career as an economist and how the academic world has changed for Austrians in recent decades.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the death of Murray Rothbard. 

"I was once told that Rothbard had an 'unfair advantage,'" Lew Rockwell writes, "because all his works are available for free on the web, thanks to our donors. Give me more such unfairness!

Mises Daily Friday by Lew Rockwell.

Mises University Alumnus Ray Walter, now a PhD student in physics and mathematics at the University of Arkansas, discusses his work with the Mises Institute and how it has influenced his academic career. 

"The Mises fellowship has been the single most important influence in my development as a scholar," writes Matt McCaffrey in his discussion on being an Austrian economist in academia today. "No other program could have given me the resources I needed to start my career."

Michael Oliver witnessed the beginning of the modern anarcho-capitalism movement, meeting Rothbard in the early 1970s. His graduate thesis was on Rothbard's description of a libertarian society and attempted to reconcile Rothbardian thought with the work of Ayn Rand.

Bettina-Bien Greaves took careful notes during Ludwig von Mises's New York seminars. Whenever he made a comment that suggested research paper or book, she jotted it down on a note card.