History of the Austrian School of Economics

Claude Frédéric Bastiat (1801 — 1850) is one of the greatest economists ever.

The first chapter of Murray Rothbard's magisterial History of Economic Thought stretches far back in time.

Recorded at Mises University 2005.

A book-length manuscript based on notes taken by Bettina B. Greaves during the Mises Seminar in New York in the 1960s. 

Murray N. Rothbard explains why he wrote two huge volumes about the history of economic thought. Here is the full introduction to his magisterial works.

The essence of Austrian economics is based on the analysis of individual action. In other words, it is about individuals doing things, having purposes and goals and pursuing them. Other schools of economics deal with aggregates, groups, classes, wholes of one sort or another, without focusing on the individual first and building up from there.

The Nobel award to F.A. Hayek in 1974 went directly against the tradition of that prize to go only to mathematical forecasters, left-liberals, and government central planners. Not only was Hayek’s work pioneering, but it is also the only correct analysis of business cycles past, present and future since they began in the mid-18th century.

In an essay that made his <a href="http://store.mises.org/Austrian-Perspective-on-the-History-of-Economic-Thought-2-volume-set-P273C0.aspx">masterpiece on the history of thought</a> famous, Murray Rothbard argues that Adam Smith should not be called the founder of economics, nor a theorist who improved on economic science, nor even a consistent defender of the market economy.

Liberty cannot be imposed in the way that socialist systems of old were imposed, because genuine liberty is not just another form of government management, writes Lew Rockwell.

Mark Skousen has undertaken a valuable project, but his book is not altogether a success. He compares the Austrian and Chicago Schools on several topics, including methodology,