David Gordon

David Gordon is Senior Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He was educated at UCLA, where he earned his PhD in history. He is the author of Resurrecting Economics, An Introduction to Economic Reasoning, An Austro-Libertarian View (three volumes), and Resurrecting Marx. He is also editor of Secession, State, and Liberty and coeditor of H.B. Acton’s Morals of Markets and Other Essays.

Dr. Gordon is the editor of the Mises Review and the Journal of Libertarian Studies, and a contributor to such journals as Analysis, the International Philosophic Quarterly, the Philosophical Quarterly, the Journal of Libertarian Studies, and the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.

Articles

Lincoln’s Distortion of the Declaration of Independence

08/22/2025 Friday Philosophy David Gordon

In the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln offered an interpretation of the Declaration of Independence which reinterpreted a declaration of secession into a justification for crushing secession.

Why We Need to Read Read

08/21/2025 The Misesian David Gordon

We owe a great debt to Gary Galles for collecting no less than 97 of Leonard Read’s articles, accompanied by a commentary of his own in which he shows their relevance to contemporary issues.

Skepticism about Moral Skepticism

08/15/2025 Friday Philosophy David Gordon

Should we regard morality as objective or subjective? In today‘s Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon looks at the writings of Timothy Williamson, who argues that we can see morality in an objective light. On that point, he would agree with Murray Rothbard.

Publications

Deneen’s Common Good Statism

09/05/2023 David Gordon

It’s likely that many readers of The Austrian support the free market and also support “traditional” social values, but in Patrick Deneen’s opinion, this is an unstable amalgam. Deneen, a political theorist who teaches at Notre Dame, thinks that the

Review: Slouching Towards Utopia

07/13/2023 David Gordon

[ Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century by J. Bradford DeLong, Basic Books, 2022 viii + 605 pp.] J. Bradford DeLong, who teaches economics at UC Berkeley and was a protégé of Larry Summer’s dislikes Austrian economics

Lost Continetti

07/22/2022 David Gordon

The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism By Matthew Continetti Basic Books, 2022 503 pp. Why should readers of The Austrian be interested in this book? At first glance, it appears that we shouldn’t be. Though the history of American

Media

We Should Not Apologize for Businesses Being Profitable

08/08/2025 David Gordon

In this week's Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon reviews Profit Without Apology: The Need to Stand Up For Business by Onkar Ghate and Dan Watkins. While praising the effort, he also shares some concerns.

Faculty Panel: Theory and Method

07/25/2024 Paul F. Cwik Lucas M. Engelhardt David Gordon Jeffrey M. Herbener Shawn Ritenour Joseph T. Salerno

This is the Austrian answer to today’s economic controversies. Featuring Paul Cwik, Lucas Engelhardt, David Gordon, Jeffrey Herbener, Shawn Ritenour, and Joe Salerno.

Jefferson Davis von Hayek?

08/01/2025 David Gordon

While Hayek did not write directly about the American Civil War, some of his writings provide insights on the conflict.