Selected major works by Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973), one of the most notable economists and social philosophers of the twentieth century.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18
A Critique of Interventionism
In Mises’s view, interventionism is an inherently unstable policy because it creates new dislocations that would seem to cry out for further interventions, which, in turn, do not solve the problem. The end of interventionism is socialism, a fate avoided only by a sharp turn toward free markets.
The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality
In 1954, after a lifetime of serious theoretical work in economic science, Mises turned his attention to one of the great puzzles of all time: discovering why the intellectuals hate capitalism. The result is this socio-psycho-cultural analysis...
Bureaucracy
Mises said it right here. In these pages we find the crushing critique of nearly all modern reform movements, summed up in his sweeping conclusion: The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is...
The Causes of the Economic Crisis, and Other Essays Before and After the Great Depression
Stimulus or laissez-faire? That’s the essential debate about what to about financial crisis in our time. It was the same in the 1930s. In this world before and after the Great Depression, there was a lone voice for sanity and freedom: Ludwig von...
Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow
This might be Mises’s best-selling book. It is a very clear explanation of the basics of economic policy: private property, free trade, exchange, prices, interest, money and inflation, socialism, fascism, investment, and much more. As Mises...
Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics
This essay offers something spectacular: an intellectual history of Mises’s own tradition, with first person accounts of conversations with the greats. And truly, Mises turns out to have written the best single account of the origin and early...
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Human Action
The masterpiece first appeared in German in 1940 and then disappeared, only to reappear in English in 1949. It was a sensation, the largest and most scientific defense of human freedom ever published. As is well known, Mises’s book is the best...
Liberalism: In the Classical Tradition
This is Mises’s classic statement in defense of a free society, one of the last statements of the old liberal school and a text from which we can continue to learn. It has been the conscience of a global movement for liberty for 80 years. This...
Liberty and Property
In 1958, the Mont Pelerin Society was entering a difficult period in which its intellectual lights were drifting away from liberalism of the old school. Ludwig von Mises used his speech that year to explain why this was a terrible trend. He didn...
The Mises Reader Unabridged
The Mises Reader can be found here. From the Introduction by Shawn Ritenour ... During my time in college, while I was still working through Human Action, I sought out other more accessible books by Mises. This was years before the advent of the...
Nation, State, and Economy
This was Mises’s second book. It was written following his military service in World War I. It is also his first book that dealt with political themes—and began Mises’s full-scale launch into the fight against collectivism that would be a theme...
Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War
Omnipotent Government was published in 1944, when the battle against Nazism held the world’s attention. How had this terrible system gained power? Mises considers and rejects several explanations popular at the time he wrote, such as inherent...
Planning for Freedom; and Twelve other Essays and Addresses
An enduring collection of Mises’s essays, some popular and others scholarly, but always engaging and provocative. The first edition came out in 1952, and headlined the essay “Planning for Freedom,” which makes the point that the choice isn’t...
The Quotable Mises
Ludwig von Mises was the greatest economist of the twentieth century, but often readers are reluctant to tackle his major works. They fear that they will be unable to follow that abstract and relentless theoretical progression of, e.g., Human...
Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis
Ludwig von Mises’s Socialism is the most important critical examination of socialism ever written. Socialism is most famous for Mises’s penetrating economic calculation argument. The book contains much more however. Mises not only shows the...
The Theory of Money and Credit
Mises shows how money had its origin in the market, and how its value is based on its usefulness as a commodity in exchange. In a step-by-step manner, Mises presents the case for sound money with no inflation and presents the beginnings of a full-scale business cycle theory.
The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science
If Mises has an unheralded masterpiece, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science is it. There are two senses in which this book is indeed ultimate: it deals with the very core of economics as a science, and it is the last book that he wrote...
Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution
Like Hayek, Mises moved beyond economics in his later years to address questions regarding the foundation of all social science. But unlike Hayek’s attempts, Mises’s writings on these matters have received less attention than they deserve...
