Biographies

This work of six years of labor appeared in 1940. It was the predecessor to Human Action published nine years later. Epistemology and value theory were the two central problems.

Mises left Vienna for six years in Geneva, 1934 – 1940, to write his treatise and leave behind the Austrian branch of the Nazi Party. In Geneva, Mises held the Chair for International Relations.

Mises was in his prime from 1920-1934 while he was 39-53 years old. Three main areas in these years were certain people, his intellectual contributions, and other work.

Mises was not surprised by WWI, 1914-1920.  He was posted on the Northern Front of the Austro-Hungarian towns as a Lieutenant in an artillery unit.

Mises’ socialist calculation argument reshaped the debate about socialism. It was not true that socialism could work and could use the same techniques as capitalism. The book Socialism had a decisive impact on Hayek and other rising economists.

Carl Menger (b. 1840) dared to create something he called the Austrian School of Economics. His was a new way of doing economic analysis. He sided with Aristotle’s realism.

This 1912 book is Mises’ first great theory. Mises agreed with Menger about the spontaneous emergence of money. No government is needed. Mises used a logical proof called the regression theory. It explained why money is demanded in its own right.

Why did Mises do certain things in response to certain events?  This first full biography of Mises seeks to answer those many questions. In the first four chapters, Hulsmann covers Mises’ roots.

DiLorenzo's well-argued and forcefully written book shows that the struggle against the "Lincoln cult" is a vital part of the case for liberty.

Thomas DiLorenzo calls attention to a vital fact that demolishes the popular view that one of Lincoln's primary motives for opposing secession in 1861 was his distaste for slavery.