Mises Wire

A New Hoppe Book

Mises Wire Mises Institute

We have exciting news for fans of Dr. Hans-Hermann Hoppe!

What if I told you there was an unpublished Hoppean treatise, a staggering book which encapsulated his entire worldview in one magnificent volume?

This book exists, and we plan to publish it early spring of next year. And we want you to be part of it.

Here’s the background: in June 2004, Professor Hoppe visited our campus in Auburn to deliver an ambitious series of lectures titled Economy, Society, and History. What followed was an intellectual tour de force few academics would even attempt.

Only those lucky enough to attend heard these lectures. This is entirely “new” material for the vast majority of  Hoppe fans.  

Over ten lectures, one each morning and afternoon for a week, Dr. Hoppe presented nothing short of a sweeping historical narrative and vision for a society rooted in markets and property. Delivered only from notes to an audience of academics and intellectuals, the lectures showed astonishing depth and breadth.

Even the most jaded scholars in the room were blown away by the erudition and scholarship of Hoppe’s presentation.

Will you help us bring these incredible lectures to the wider audience they deserve?

This project brings together the core of Hoppe’s lifetime of theoretical work in one vital and cohesive source. Here we find provocative themes developed by Hoppe in the 1980s and 90s, particularly in his essays found in A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism and The Economics and Ethics of Private Property. We also find his devastating critique of democracy, made famous in his seminal book Democracy, the God that Failed.

We’ve taken the recordings, edited them, and put them into a printed book. As a bonus, the book will include the best Q and A from the live audience in 2004. To understand just how far-reaching Hoppe’s lectures were, take a look at this amazing table of contents. As always, Hoppe is equipped—and unafraid—to tackle history, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, ethics, politics, and economics, melding them into one coherent thesis:

Chapter 1: The Nature of Man and the Human Condition: Language, Property, and Production  
Property developed naturally, not artificially, as a consequence of human action. What is the philosophical justification for private property, and what does property mean for economics and justice?

Chapter 2: The Spread of Humans Around the World: The Extension and Intensification of the Division of Labor
How did man evolve to develop trade and specialization? What did that mean for the development of society?

Chapter 3: Money and Monetary Integration: The Growth of Cities and the Globalization of Trade
Money solves problems of barter and trade; good money makes global economics possible. But money is always and forever subject to corrupting monopolization by states and central banks. How do we separate money from the state, and separate trade from politics?

Chapter 4: Time Preference, Capital, Technology, and Economic Growth
Time, and our preference for present goods over future goods, informs everything we do. Low time preference, demonstrated by capital accumulation, is the key to advancing civilization. How do we encourage capital accumulation when the forces of statism work against us?

Chapter 5: The Wealth of Nations: Ideology, Religion, Biology, and Environment
How did the West get rich? What intellectual movements threaten progress, or advance it?

Chapter 6: The Production of Law and Order: Natural Order, Feudalism, and Federalism
Must law be positive rather than evolved? Who creates it, and who enforces it?

Chapter 7: Parasitism and the Origin of the State
How did we get here? How does the ruling class derive its putative legitimacy, and what can the distant origins of governance teach us about the vast managerial social welfare states we endure today?

Chapter 8: From Monarchy to Democracy
Is democracy really the great advancement in human liberty we have been taught to believe? What is the role of natural and artificial elites?

Chapter 9: State, War, and Imperialism
States are necessarily expansionist and bellicose. How do we tame their warring and intervening nature?

Chapter 10: Strategy: Secession, Privatization, and the Prospects of Liberty
Can private covenant communities replace the state? Why is a private property order morally urgent? Is secession viable? How do we move forward strategically?

As you can see, this book will be a tremendous addition to Hoppe’s body of work and a hugely important contribution to the “big picture” outlook for the West. Hoppe’s work is more important today than ever, given the penchant of modern bureaucratic states to war, intervene, tax, regulate, debase, and generally plunder the engines of peace and civilization.

Economy, Society, and History is a blueprint for understanding the world, rethinking it, and creating a better one. That’s why it’s so important for the Mises Institute to publish these lectures in book form.

We intend to publish this book in spring 2021. Your tax-deductible donation of any amount will help. Donors of $100 or more will receive a free copy of the book. If you can make a $500 donation, you will be listed in the front of this handsome work as a Donor; $1,000 as a Patron; $5,000 as a Benefactor. We deeply appreciate any amount you wish to give for this important project.

The world needs the clarity of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, and the Mises Institute needs you to help bring his work to the world. Please make your most generous contribution to this vital project today.

Sincerely,

Jeff Deist

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Note: The views expressed on Mises.org are not necessarily those of the Mises Institute.
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