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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Source: Online Books: 510 records

Introduction to Austrian Economics, An

Thomas C. Taylor Updated 5/17/2011

For the serious student, this exposition of the essentials of Austrian economics is excellent. Taylor discusses all the fundamental aspects of Austrian thought, from subjectivism and marginal utility to inflation and the business cycle. This new and...
Myth of National Defense, The: Essays on the Theory and History of Security Production

Hans-Hermann Hoppe Updated 5/13/2011

With eleven chapters by top libertarian scholars on all aspects of defense, this book edited by Hans-Hermann Hoppe represents an ambitious attempt to extend the idea of free enterprise to the provision of security services. It argues that "nat...
Honest Money

Gary North Updated 5/12/2011

Lots of people are harassed routinely by ministers and other believers who imagine that the Bible favors inflationary schemes, bans the paying and receiving of interest, and requires a government monopoly on money to fund glorious government projects...
The Liberal Tradition from Fox to Keynes

Alan Bullock, ed. Updated 5/11/2011

Long before our time, the word liberal meant: leave society alone to manage itself. In economics, it meant laissez-faire and private property. In government, it meant the rule of law. In civic life, it meant more liberty. Freedom was the watchword, t...
An Essay on Economic Theory

Richard Cantillon Updated 5/11/2011

At last, and finally, here is the first accurate and beautiful translation of Richard Cantillon's 1755 masterpiece on economics. This treatise is widely credited with being the first to describe the market process as one driven by entrepreneurshi...
Tariff History of the United States

F.W. Taussig Updated 5/10/2011

The Mises Institute has completely retypeset F.W. Taussig’s definitive work on the tariff of the 19th century in the United States, a history that in some sense is the most important ever written because it was so decisive in leading to the sectional...
Studies in Economic Nationalism

Michael A. Heilperin Updated 5/9/2011

This work by Michael Heilperin, a giant in the area of monetary economics, might be one of the most rare - and unique - in the history of 20th century economic thought. It is one of the few books written during the mid-century period of hyper-nationa...
Against the Tide

Wilhelm Röpke Updated 5/6/2011

Wilhelm Roepke was schooled in the tradition of the Austrians and made enormous contributions to the study of political institutions. Here we have collected some of his most powerful anti-Keynesian writings, which, in particular, underscore what...
Anything That's Peaceful: The Case for the Free Market

Leonard E. Read Updated 5/4/2011

Leonard Read was a great spokesman for liberty, and an excellent teacher in the second half of the 20th century. Everyone agrees that this is his most inspired collection. It includes the essay later called "I, Pencil," which is a masterful...
Deep Freeze: Iceland's Economic Collapse

Philipp Bagus Updated 5/2/2011

It was a modern thriving economy one day, and then, suddenly, the food disappeared from the shelves, the banks closed, and the ships stopped arriving. Iceland in 2008 experienced an unprecedented economic meltdown that struck fear in the hearts of...
Man vs. The Welfare State

Henry Hazlitt Updated 4/28/2011

In this 1969 work, Henry Hazlitt explains why politicians who promise salvation through government are dangerous. Among the essays: Instant Utopia Salvation Through Government Spending "We Owe It To Ourselves" Consequences of Dollar Deba...
Jefferson

Albert Jay Nock Updated 4/28/2011

Here is Albert Jay Nock's classic study on the life and thought of Thomas Jefferson, a book which draws out points other biographers have missed: his radicalism, his opposition to all centralized government, his attachment to liberty and property...
Country Squire in the White House

John T. Flynn Updated 4/27/2011

John T. Flynn was an early New Dealer who quickly saw what happens when power is concentrated in the executive state. He became a passionate opponent of FDR and his policies. This 1940 book is his analysis of the American presidency and the place...
The Critics of Keynesian Economics

Henry Hazlitt, ed. Updated 4/26/2011

The Critics of Keynesian Economics from Mises Media on Vimeo. Henry Hazlitt confronted the rise of Keynesianism in his day and put together an intellectual arsenal: the most brilliant economists of the time showing what is wrong with the system, i...
Liberty: A Path to Its Recovery

F.A. Harper Updated 4/25/2011

F.A. Harper was a leader in the libertarian movement from the 1950s and onward. Here is his early manifesto (1949), in which he reveals a sophisticated understanding of free markets and freedom but had not yet, as he later did, come around completely...
The Roosevelt Myth

John T. Flynn Updated 4/15/2011

Franklin D. Roosevelt is the most sainted president of the 20th century. You have to look far and wide to discover the truth about his character and policies. But as John T. Flynn noted in this landmark 1948 volume, FDR actually prolonged the Great D...
Failure of the 'New Economics'

Henry Hazlitt Updated 4/15/2011

Henry Hazlitt did the seemingly impossible, something that was and is a magnificent service to all people everywhere. He wrote a line-by-line commentary and refutation of one of the most destructive, fallacious, and convoluted books of the century. T...
The Bastiat Collection

Frederic Bastiat Updated 4/11/2011

The world has always needed this: a gigantic collection of Bastiat's greatest work in a single, super-handy pocket edition, at a ridiculously affordable price. All of the best essays by this giant of liberty are here, 1000 plus pages of it, b...
Freedom Under Siege

Ron Paul Updated 4/8/2011

Here is Ron Paul's political manifesto, a courageous book on civil liberties and the rights of Americans that are relentlessly under assault from government. It was written in 1987, on the 200th anniversary of the Constitution, and is back in pri...
Economic Science and the Austrian Method

Hans-Hermann Hoppe Updated 4/8/2011

A definitive defense of the methodological foundations of Austrian economics. Hoppe sets the praxeological view (economics as a purely deductive science) against positivism, while taking the critics of the Austrian approach head on. Hans-Hermann H...
Gold, Peace, and Prosperity

Ron Paul Updated 4/7/2011

Revised Pocket Edition! The second edition of Gold, Peace, and Prosperity is just 4.25" x .4" x 7 " in size. Truly portable and available at volume discounts. The book has been newly type set and all images updated. This is the perfe...
In Restraint of Trade: The Business Campaign Against Competition, 1918-1938

Butler Shaffer Updated 4/5/2011

This extremely important study by Butler Shaffer—professor of law and economist—will change the way you think of the relationship between the state and business. It makes a deep inquiry into the attitudes of business leaders toward competition during...
The New Deal in Old Rome

H. J. Haskell Updated 4/5/2011

How Government in the Ancient World Tried to Deal with Modern Problems What a fantastic way to learn ancient history: via the parallels with modern times. H.J. Haskell was a journalist with a huge background in ancient history, and here he does...
The Mainspring of Human Progress

Henry Grady Weaver Updated 4/4/2011

What has capitalism contributed to civilization? It made it. And nowhere has it thrived so beautifully as in America, the country that threw off the static old world to make a new one rooted in progress and individualism. With incredible eruditio...
Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls: How Not to Fight Inflation

Robert L. Scheuttinger Updated 4/2/2011

By special arrangement with the authors, the Mises Institute is thrilled to bring back this popular guide to ridiculous economic policy from the ancient world to modern times. This outstanding history illustrates the utter futility of fighting the ma...
The Principles of Economics, With Applications to Practical Problems

Frank A. Fetter Updated 3/31/2011

Stephan Kinsella lp-3-8 Mac OS X 10.6.7 Quartz PDFContext...
Century of War, A

John V. Denson Updated 3/31/2011

The horrors of the twentieth century could hardly have been predicted in the nineteenth century, which saw the eighteenth century end with the American Revolution bringing about the creation of the first classical liberal government in history. Th...
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...
The Rate of Interest: Its Nature, Determination, and Relation to Economic Phenomena

Irving Fisher Updated 3/10/2011

Personal copy of Frank Knight, with liner notes and markings....
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 a 100 Percent Gold Dollar, The

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 2/18/2011

Rothbard not only argues for the gold standard; he shows how it can be restored in a practical, step-by-step plan. No other system will stop the seemingly endless monetary inflation of the Federal Reserve system. He also makes his strongest case agai...
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 Clash of Group Interests and Other Essays

Ludwig von Mises Updated 2/2/2011

In this thrilling essay written in 1945, Mises lays out a theory of social organization in response to the Marxist critique of the free society. He explains that the Marxist view is wrong concerning its claim that there is a clash of group interests...
A Treatise on Currency and Banking

Condy Raguet Updated 1/31/2011

This remarkable hard-money treatise appeared in 1840. It is by Condy Raguet (1784-1842), a noted Pennsylvania politician and economist who worked as a merchant in several Latin American countries. He was wholly dedicated to free trade, the free marke...
Never Ask The End

Isabel Paterson Updated 1/27/2011

Isabel Paterson Never Ask the End...
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...
Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics

Ludwig von Mises Updated 1/21/2011

This little essay offers something spectacular: an intellectual history of Mises's own tradition, with first person accounts of conversations with the greats. And truly, Mises turns out to have written the best single account of the origin and ea...
Liberalismus

Ludwig von Mises Updated 1/20/2011

Verlag von Gustav Fischer, Jena, 1927...
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 US Constitution and Money: Corruption and Decline

Michael S. Rozeff Updated 12/28/2010

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