Literature Library

The most complete online offering of the literature of the Austrian School and libertarian ideas, including books, journal articles, and other writings, sorted by author or any method you choose.

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Format: ebook-epub: 306 records

Defending the Undefendable

Walter Block Updated 3/30/2011

Professor Block's book is in a new edition from the Mises Institute, completely reset and beautifully laid out in an edition worthy of its contents. It is among the most famous of the great defenses of victimless crimes and controversial e...
Theory of Socialism and Capitalism, A

Hans-Hermann Hoppe Updated 3/23/2011

Here is Hans Hoppe's first treatise in English - actually his first book in English - and the one that put him on the map as a social thinker and economist to watch. He argued that there are only two possible archetypes in economic affairs: socia...
The Betrayal of the American Right

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 3/23/2011

This remarkable piece of history will change the way you look at American politics. It shows that the corruption of American "conservatism" began long before George W. Bush ballooned the budget and asserted dictatorial rights over the count...
Chaos Theory

Robert P. Murphy Updated 3/18/2011

Among the most advanced topics in the literature in the Austro-libertarian milieu is that which deals with the workings of the fully free society, that is, the society with no state, or anarcho-capitalism. Robert Murphy deals with this head on, and m...
Against Intellectual Property

Stephan Kinsella Updated 3/14/2011

This monograph is justifiably considered a modern classic. It is by Stephan Kinsella who caused a worldwide rethinking among libertarians of the very basis of intellectual property. Mises had warned against patents, and Rothbard did too. But Kinsella...
The Austrian School of Economics: A History of Its Ideas, Ambassadors, and Institutions

Eugen-Maria Schulak Updated 3/14/2011

The Austrian School is in the news as never before. It is discussed on business pages, academic journals, and speeches by public figures. At long last, there is a brilliant and engaging guide to the history, ideas, and institutions of the Austria...
Out of Step

Frank Chodorov Updated 3/11/2011

Frank Chodorov was a journalist of the Old Right with an extraordinary writing ability. He was also a top-notch intellectual figure who has been tragically neglected. This collection might be his best. Among the smashing essays here are: "Isolat...
Great Wars and Great Leaders: A Libertarian Rebuttal

Ralph Raico Updated 3/1/2011

The great historian of classical liberalism strips away the veneer of exalted leaders and beloved wars. Professor Ralph Raico shows them to be wolves in sheep's clothing and their wars as attacks on human liberty and human rights. In the backdr...
Case for Gold, The

Ron Paul Updated 2/12/2011

This is the LvMI 2nd Edition! Pocket sized 5" x 7" and with a new foreword by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. Here is the revolutionary book on monetary reform - brilliant, compelling, clear, with specific reforms to do now - in an edition fo...
Building Blocks for Liberty

Walter Block Updated 2/9/2011

Walter Block ranks among the most prolific and provocative libertarian thinkers in human history. This volume fills an important gap in his corpus of writing: a series of accessible articles on cutting edge topics. His research and writing on roads,...
The Theory of Money and Credit

Ludwig von Mises Updated 1/26/2011

Mises wrote this book for the ages, and it remains the most spirited, thorough, and scientifically rigorous treatise on money to ever appear. It made his reputation across Europe and established him as the most important economist of his age. We t...
Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War

Ludwig von Mises Updated 1/5/2011

At the close of the Second World War, Mises saw the destruction of the old world and the beginnings of a new one that did not look promising, especially for European politics. Socialism appeared to sweep all before it, and the social democratic varie...
Politically Impossible?

William H. Hutt Updated 1/5/2011

Should economists curb their rhetoric and prescriptions based on “political realities”? Should anyone attempt to conceal the truth about state intervention for fear of not fitting into the existing political culture? Many people answer yes to...
Bureaucracy

Ludwig von Mises Updated 1/5/2011

Mises said it right here. In these pages we find the crushing critique of nearly all modern reform movements, summed up in his sweeping conclusion: "The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is...
The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically

Franz Oppenheimer Updated 12/29/2010

This is the 1908 book that started it all in the 20th century, the book that kicked off a century of anti-state, pro-property writing. This was the prototype for Nock's writing, for Chodorov's work, and even the theoretical edifice that later...
The Man versus the State

Herbert Spencer Updated 12/29/2010

Henry Hazlitt says that this book is "One of the most powerful and influential arguments for limited government, laissez faire and individualism ever written." Spencer played a huge role in the history of ideas, one that contemporary soc...
The Causes of the Economic Crisis, and Other Essays Before and After the Great Depression

Ludwig von Mises Updated 12/9/2010

Stimulus or laissez-faire? That's the essential debate about what to about financial crisis in our time. It was the same in the 1930s. In this world before and after the Great Depression, there was a lone voice for sanity and freedom: Ludwig...
Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, The

Ludwig von Mises Updated 12/3/2010

If Mises has an unheralded masterpiece, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science is it. There are two senses in which this book is indeed ultimate: it deals with the very core of economics as a science, and it is the last book that he wrote. For t...
Marxism Unmasked: From Delusion to Destruction

Ludwig von Mises Updated 12/3/2010

We can't sit under Mises at his famous Vienna private seminar. We can't go back in time and attend his New York seminar, or follow him to his speaking engagements that he held in the 50s and 60s. But thanks to this second volume in a thri...
Speaking of Liberty

Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. Updated 10/25/2010

Mises said that teaching the public was just as important as addressing scholars — maybe more so.That is what Lew Rockwell specializes in: history and theory and analysis in defense of the free society, written in clear prose to reach a broad audien...
History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 10/25/2010

Hardcover Edition The master teacher of American economic history covers money and banking in the whole of American history, to show that the meltdown of our times is hardly the first. And guess what caused them in the past? Paper money, loose cre...
Strictly Confidential: The Private Volker Fund Memos of Murray N. Rothbard

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 10/25/2010

Strictly Confidential from Mises Media on Vimeo.The Private Volker Fund Memos of Murray N. Rothbard Mr. Libertarian, a great genius of twentieth century and one of the most innovative intellectuals in human history, still has more and more to say,...
Satan's Bushel

Garet Garrett Updated 9/25/2010

This dazzling work in economic fiction is the third of Garet Garrett's novel trilogy, written and first published in 1924. Like the others, Satan's Bushel is a splendid book, not just from the point of view of economics but also as a piece of...
Economic Thought Before Adam Smith: An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume I

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 9/6/2010

The appearance of the famous (and massive) volumes of Rothbard's History of Economic Thought in a new edition is cause for great celebration. They have been out of print for many years, and were previously only available at a price exceeding...
I, Pencil

Leonard Read Updated 9/1/2010

First published in the December 1958 issue of the Freeman, "I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read" is written in the first person from the point of view of an Eberhard Faber pencil. The pencil details the complexity of its...
Bourbon for Breakfast

Jeffrey A. Tucker Updated 8/30/2010

Bourbon for Breakfast: Living Outside the Statist Quo The state makes a mess of everything it touches, argues Jeffrey Tucker in Bourbon for Breakfast. Perhaps the biggest mess it makes is in our minds. Its pervasive interventions in every sector...
Economics and Ethics of Private Property: Studies in Political Economy and Philosophy, The

Hans-Hermann Hoppe Updated 8/11/2010

"Do not steal" is an excellent principle of ethics; it is also the first principle of sound economic systems. In our time, no one has done more than Hans-Hermann Hoppe to elaborate on the sociological implications of this truth. And this is...
Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy

Percy L. Greaves, Jr. Updated 8/11/2010

A president faced an economic depression that wouldn't go away, and a deeply disgruntled electorate. Not for the first or last time, the option of entering a war seemed politically appealing. How badly did FDR want a war and to what lengths was h...
Murray N. Rothbard vs. The Philosophers: Unpublished Writings on Hayek, Mises, Strauss, and Polanyi

Roberta A. Modugno Updated 6/25/2010

Here is Rothbard's stunning mind at work on some of the most serious topics in philosophy, economics, and politics, originally crafted as private memos. The advantage here is that you get super-candid evaluations of the thought of the giants whil...
Study Guide of Man, Economy, and State

Robert P. Murphy Updated 6/18/2010

The prose of Man, Economy, and State by Murray Rothbard is as clear as a bell. But its sheer size (1441 pages!) is intimidating. After all, Rothbard systematically covers the whole of economic science. Fortunately, the young and brilliant economi...
Study Guide to Human Action: A Treatise on Economics

Robert P. Murphy Updated 6/18/2010

This is the first-ever Human Action Study Guide, and congratulations to Robert Murphy for being the only person in 60 years to complete this much-needed task that has been attempted many times before. This Guide is spiral bound and 380 pages, com...
Pictures of the Socialistic Future

Eugen Richter Updated 6/15/2010

This book is a remarkable discovery, as fresh today as when it was first translated in 1893. It is a novel of life under socialism by Eugene Richter, a German liberal of the 19th century. Prophetic is not quite the word for this book. Richter...
Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution

Ludwig von Mises Updated 6/11/2010

New hardcover edition, introduction by Murray N. Rothbard Like Hayek, Mises moved beyond economics in his later years to address questions regarding the foundation of all social science. But unlike Hayek's attempts, Mises's writings on t...
Early Speculative Bubbles and Increases in the Supply of Money

Doug French Updated 6/7/2010

Early Speculative Bubbles & Increases in the Money Supply The Housing Bubble was hardly the first in human history. What's eluded historians is the same issue that eludes commentators today: the underlying cause of bubbles. This book i...
The Capitalist and the Entrepreneur: Essays on Organizations and Markets

Peter G. Klein Updated 6/7/2010

Entrepreneurship is a hot topic in academic, managerial, and policy circles. Yet researchers and policymakers tend to define entrepreneurship narrowly as business start-ups, and entrepreneurs as young dreamers with a particular personality. In f...
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature, and Other Essays

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 6/1/2010

Rothbard vs. the Crazies All evidence points to the superiority of the libertarian ideal—private property, capitalism, international trade, laissez-faire—but something is keeping the world from embracing it. That something is wrong-headed ideolog...
Nation, State, and Economy

Ludwig von Mises Updated 5/28/2010

This was Mises's second book. It was written following his military service in World War I. It is also his first book that dealt with political themes--and began Mises's full-scale launch into the fight against collectivism that would be a th...
Liberalism: In the Classical Tradition

Ludwig von Mises Updated 5/28/2010

New LvMI edition with foreword by Thomas Woods This is Mises's classic statement in defense of a free society, one of the last statements of the old liberal school and a text from which we can continue to learn. It has been the conscience of a g...
Memoirs

Ludwig von Mises Updated 5/28/2010

These are difficult times for those who love freedom. But they are nothing like what Mises faced during his life. He prevailed, and his Memoirs explain how. We can learn from Mises in this respect too. "How one carries on in the face of u...
Common Sense Economics

L. Albert Hahn Updated 5/27/2010

Professor Hahn, one of the greatest but least known Austrian economists of his generation, offers a fantastic refutation of Keynesian macroeconomics, including its wild obsession with effective demand, and also a systematic presentation of the Austri...
Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis

Ludwig von Mises Updated 5/25/2010

The cover is from a Greek portrayal of the reality of war -- a fitting portrayal too of life under socialism, in which brute force is the only way to secure control over resources essential to life. This edition is the original as published by Yal...
Mystery of Banking, The

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 5/24/2010

The Mystery of Banking from Mises Media on Vimeo. Talk about great timing. Rothbard's extraordinary book unravels the mystery of banking: what is legitimate enterprise and what is a government-backed shell game that can't last. His explana...
The Left, the Right, and the State

Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. Updated 5/24/2010

Lew Rockwell's new manifesto is a clarion call—creative and thought-provoking on every page—for a principled liberty in our time. There are very few books in which you can open up any page and immediately find a quotable and inspiring passage tha...
The Ethics of Money Production

Jörg Guido Hülsmann Updated 5/24/2010

This pioneering work, in hardback, by Jörg Guido Hülsmann, professor of economics at the University of Angers in France and the author of Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism, is the first full study of a critically important issue toda...
Classical Economics: An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume II

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 5/24/2010

The appearance of the famous (and massive) volumes of Rothbard's History of Economic Thought in a new edition is cause for great celebration. They have been out of print for many years, and were previously only available at a price exceeding...
The Rise and Fall of Society

Frank Chodorov Updated 5/15/2010

Frank Chodorov adored the work of Albert Jay Nock, particularly Nock's writings on the State. And so Chodorov set out to do something implausible: to rework the Nock book in his own style. Rothbard wrote of this book: "Frank's...
The Driver

Garet Garrett Updated 5/14/2010

Here is a treasure in the history of the pro-capitalist novel. Garet Garrett, author of The People's Pottage, tells the story of an upstart Wall Street speculator financier, Henry Galt, a shadowy figure who stays out of the limelight as much as p...
The Cinder Buggy

Garet Garrett Updated 5/14/2010

Garet Garrett's fiction deals with the social impact of economic transformations. In The Driver, he deals with railroads, while Satan's Bushel examines agricultural. The Cinder Buggy, his second in the trilogy, is the longest of the t...
The Case Against the Fed

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 5/14/2010

The most powerful case against the American central bank ever written. This work begins with a mini-treatment of money and banking theory, and then plunges right in with the real history of the Federal Reserve System. Rothbard covers the struggle bet...
The Socialist Tradition: Moses to Lenin

Alexander Gray Updated 5/14/2010

Alexander Gray (1882–1968) was a British economist with a particularly keen appreciation of the Austrian contribution to the history of ideas. As with others of his generation, he was super well-educated and an outstanding stylist of the English lang...