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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Subject: Books-full-text: 511 records

The Theory of Idle Resources

William H. Hutt Updated 7/8/2011

W.H. Hutt’s Theory of Idle Resources was first published in 1939, surely one of the earliest responses to Keynes’s General Theory. Hutt goes for the heart of Keynes’s prescription for recovery, which was to get idle resources moving, whether that...
Gold and the Gold Standard

Edwin Walter Kemmerer Updated 7/8/2011

Edwin Walter Kemmerer is one of the unsung heroes of the 20th century. A professor of economics at Princeton, he was known as the "money doctor" between the wars, helping countries to establish and maintain strong currencies between 1923 an...
Capital, Interest, and Rent: Essays in the Theory of Distribution

Frank A. Fetter Updated 7/7/2011

Frank Fetter of Princeton University was one of the great American Austrians, and perhaps the most lucid defender of the "pure time preference" theory of interest in the history of economic ideas. Rothbard learned from him, and then col...
Value, Capital, and Rent

Knut Wicksell Updated 7/6/2011

Knut Wicksell was an important thinker of the second-generation marginalist school, and here is his detailed commentary on and elaboration of the capital theory of Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk. It was first published in 1893, but did not appear in Engl...
Men Against the State: The Expositers of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827-1908

James J. Martin Updated 7/1/2011

Talk about a suppressed intellectual tradition! America was home to the first full-blown movement of individualist anarchists in the 19th and early 20th century. The author of this book on the topic adds the adjective "individualist" to...
Interest and Prices

Knut Wicksell Updated 6/29/2011

It was this work by Swedish economist Wicksell that drew Mises's attention to the effects of interest rate manipulation on the capital structure. This was the first to present the idea of the natural rate of interest, which Wicksell argued can be...
The Free Man's Library

Henry Hazlitt Updated 6/25/2011

Henry Hazlitt did an incredible thing with this book. He created in a mere 180 pages an anthology of short reviews of 550 books on economics and politics, old and new, from the point of view of an Austro-libertarian. Hazlitt wrote it because he bel...
Keynes the Man

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 6/23/2011

Here is Rothbard's mini-biography of Lord Keynes, one that makes use of all modern research to reconstruct Keynes's life and works in a way that is absolutely devastating. We read about his schooling, his secret societies, his political assoc...
The Way to Will Power

Henry Hazlitt Updated 6/22/2011

What a thrilling little treasure this is, a completely rediscovered book by Henry Hazlitt from 1922 This is Hazlitt before he became an advocate of the Austrian School, and here he is not writing on economics but personal ethics as informed by anc...
The Essential Rothbard

David Gordon Updated 6/22/2011

Here is the book for the Age of Rothbard, precisely the primer that is needed at a time when his influence—as the most radical and compelling intellectual force in the second half of the 20th century—is higher than during any time during his lifeti...
The Development of Economic Doctrine: An Introductory Survey

Alexander Gray Updated 6/21/2011

Alexander Gray 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 language. Even b...
On the Origins of Money

Carl Menger Updated 6/20/2011

Written in the same year that he testified before the Currency Commission in Austria-Hungary, and published in English in 1892, Carl Menger explains that it is not government edicts that create money but instead the marketplace. Individuals decide wh...
Ludwig von Mises on Money and Inflation

Ludwig von Mises Updated 6/17/2011

In the 1960s, Ludwig von Mises lectured often on money and inflation. Bettina Bien Greaves was there taking shorthand. She has been working to transcribe them for a very long time. At last the results are here and they are fantastic. To have this w...
Exchange, Prices, and Production in Hyper-Inflation: Germany 1920-1923

Frank D. Graham Updated 6/15/2011

This large-scale study of the German hyper-inflation is definitive in the English language. Written by a professor at Princeton University, and published in 1930, Frank Graham's treatment was so accurate and incisive that Ludwig von Mises himse...
Recent Literature on Interest

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk Updated 6/14/2011

This book by Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk is a supplement to his two great books, Capital and Interest and The Positive Theory of Capital. Here he takes on alternatives to the Austrian theory he had previously presented, and thereby clarifies the case. It...
Control or Economic Law

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk Updated 6/10/2011

Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk was a giant of the Austrian School. Finally, here is an approachable book by him. His masterworks on interest and capital run up to 1000-plus pages. Everyone should read them, as Mises said, but of course it is a bit much t...
Karl Marx and the Close of His System

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk Updated 6/10/2011

The great economist takes on Karl Marx, and his fundamental failure to understand the workings of the capital market and its relationship to value. The criticism was devastating, so much so that a leading Marxist responded, and thus herein is Rudolf...
The Positive Theory of Capital

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk Updated 6/9/2011

This is the second book in the series of Boehm-Bawerk translations by Scottish economist William Smart, originally published in 1891. It is, as the title suggests, the positive theory of capital. It begins with full front matter by Smart himself,...
Capital and Interest

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk Updated 6/8/2011

The great economist and finance minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is a pillar of the Austrian School. As a champion of the new marginalist school, this great work brought him more fame than even Carl Menger had in his day. Here is the origi...
On Doing the Right Thing

Albert Jay Nock Updated 6/7/2011

This wonderful collection of essays by Albert Jay Nock, first published in 1928, includes his "Anarchist's Progress," "Thoughts on Revolution," "The Decline of Conversation," and other classics by this great American...
The Vampire Economy

Günter Reimann Updated 6/3/2011

Here is a study of the actual workings of business under national socialism. Written in 1939, Reimann discusses the effects of heavy regulation, inflation, price controls, trade interference, national economic planning, and attacks on private propert...
Snoring as a Fine Art, and Twelve Other Essays

Albert Jay Nock Updated 6/2/2011

Here is that passage that explains why Albert Jay Nock called his book Snoring as a Fine Art: "Snoring should be regarded as a fine art and respected accordingly. If this be admitted, I might suggest further that our civilization does not s...
The Market for Liberty

Morris and Linda Tannehill Updated 6/1/2011

Some great books are the product of a lifetime of research, reflection, and labored discipline. But other classics are written in a white heat during the moment of discovery, with prose that shines forth like the sun pouring into the window of a time...
Principles of Economics

Carl Menger Updated 5/31/2011

Principles of Economics: Pocket Edition from Mises Media on Vimeo. This edition is absolutely gorgeous - handy, economical, and beautifully printed. We've never had an edition of this core work that is so nicely done. In the beginning, ther...
The Theory of Education in the United States: The Page-Barbour Lectures for 1931 at the University of Virginia

Albert Jay Nock Updated 5/30/2011

It is hard to say what is most notable about this book published first in 1931: 1. Albert Jay Nock's incredible disquisition on the real meaning of education and its role in a free society. 2. That these lectures were given at a universi...
The Decline of the American Republic

John T. Flynn Updated 5/26/2011

In 1955, John T. Flynn saw what few others journalist did: the welfare-warfare state conspired to bring down American liberty. The New Deal combined with World War Two had fastened leviathan control over a country born in liberty. This early analy...
Capital and Its Structure

Ludwig M. Lachmann Updated 5/24/2011

Ludwig Lachmann in 1956 set out to correct the problem that the economics profession had no coherent and working understanding of capital, a concept so integral to economic science and yet not explored at length since the takeover of macroeconomics b...
Prosperity Through Competition

Ludwig Erhard Updated 5/24/2011

In postwar Germany, one great statesman led the fight for freedom: Ludwig Erhard. He was deeply influenced by Wilhelm Ropke, and drew heavily on the case for free markets made by Ludwig von Mises. He received his PhD from Franz Oppenheimer, th...
Money, Sound and Unsound

Joseph T. Salerno Updated 5/24/2011

Ludwig von Mises said that there can never be too much of a good theory. Salerno proves it in this sweeping and nearly comprehensive book on applied Austrian monetary theory. He uses the Mises/Rothbard theory of money to reinterpret historical epis...
The Place of Religion in the Liberal Philosophy of Constant, Tocqueville, and Lord Acton

Ralph Raico Updated 5/24/2011

The Place of Religion in the Liberal Philosophy of Constant, Tocqueville, and Lord Acton Forty years ago, historian Ralph Raico completed his dissertation under the direction of F.A. Hayek at the University of Chicago. Its title masks its power a...
Income Tax: Root of All Evil

Frank Chodorov Updated 5/23/2011

Frank Chodorov was an extraordinary thinker and writer, and hugely influential in the 1950s. He wrote what became an American classic arguing that the income tax, more than any other legislative change in American history, made it possible to violate...
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...
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...