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

The Futility of Utility

11/21/2025 Friday Philosophy David Gordon

Mainstream economics is obsessed with “maximizing” so-called utility functions and discovering the ubiquitous “social utility curve.” In this week’s Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon takes apart this “utility” fixation.

A Rawlsian Trick

11/14/2025 Friday Philosophy David Gordon

When John Rawls published A Theory of Justice in 1971, he realized there were some loopholes that he tried to cover 22 years later with Political Liberalism. In this week’s Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon exposes the intellectual futility of Rawls' tricks.

Gunning for Kagan

11/07/2025 Friday Philosophy David Gordon

A sympathetic case for the America First Committee and their opposition to America’s entry into World War II comes from a surprising source.

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

How to Counter Arguments That Taxation Is Legitimate

11/04/2025 David Gordon

Dr. David Gordon explains why the leading philosophical defenses of taxation collapse, and why natural rights still say taxation is theft.

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.