Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Works Published inThe Journal of Libertarian Studies

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (1909-1999) was an Austrian nobleman and socio-political theorist who described himself as an enemy of all forms of totalitarianism and as an "extreme conservative arch-liberal" or "liberal of the extreme right." Described as "A Walking Book of Knowledge," Kuehnelt-Leddihn had an encyclopedic knowledge of the humanities and was a polyglot, able to speak eight languages and read seventeen others.

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Democracy's Road to Tyranny

DemocracyPolitical Theory

Blog07/23/2021Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

The popular pastime of modern democracies of punishing the diligent and thrifty, while rewarding the lazy, improvident, and unthrifty, is cultivated via the State, fulfilling a demo-egalitarian program based on a demo-totalitarian ideology.

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Portrait of an Evil Man: Karl Marx

World HistoryOther Schools of Thought

Blog07/21/2021Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Destructive ideas almost unavoidably derive from a destructive and—in the case of Marxism—rather repulsive person.

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The Roots of "Anticapitalism"

Other Schools of ThoughtPhilosophy and MethodologyPolitical Theory

Blog07/19/2021Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Anticapitalism's origins are not found with the workers. Rather, it came from the aristocrats and middle-class intellectuals who harbored resentment and fear of the rising entrepreneurial and industrial classes.

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The Cultural Background of Ludwig von Mises

BiographiesWar and Foreign PolicyWorld HistoryHistory of the Austrian School of Economics

07/31/2019Essays in Political EconomyErik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

Writing about the cultural background of Ludwig von Mises, an eminent former compatriot of mine, poses some difficulties: how to present you with a world radically different from yours, a world far away, which in many ways no longer exists.

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