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.

We recommend Adobe Reader for PDF files and Adobe Digital Editions for desktop reading of ePub (ebook) files.

For an ePub reader, we recommend the iBook app, O'Reilly's Bookworm, or the Stanza Catalog.

Has the Mises.org Literature section changed your life? We want to hear from you!

Subject: 124: 86 records

Memoirs of a Superfluous Man

Albert Jay Nock Updated 7/19/2012

Albert Jay Nock, perhaps the most brilliant American essayist of the 20th century, and certainly among its most important libertarian thinkers, set out to write his autobiography but he ended up doing much more. He presents here a full theory of soci...
Man, Economy, and State, with Power and Market

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 1/12/2012

Ridiculously low price! Murray N. Rothbard's great treatise Man, Economy, and State and its complementary text Power and Market, are here combined into a single edition as they were written to be. It provides a sweeping presentation of Austria...
International Order and Economic Integration

Wilhelm Röpke Updated 1/3/2012

Some of Röpke's best work has remained long out of print, this book among them. With great sincerity and passion he explains how the old liberals of his generation came to reject war came to reject war as a first principle and then reject so...
Planned Chaos

Ludwig von Mises Updated 12/27/2011

This new edition (completely reset) of Planned Chaos features a new introduction by Chris Westley of Jacksonville State University. The introduction brings this classic up to date - not that it has ever fallen out of date or ever will. The title c...
The Menace of the Herd, or Procrustes at Large

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn Updated 12/20/2011

This exceeding rare book is by one of the great men of the 20th century. Written soon after his immigration to the United States, he signed the book "Francis Stuart Campbell" because he was a refugee from Austria and didn't want to enda...
Liberty or Equality: The Challenge of Our Time

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn Updated 12/9/2011

Sometime in the 18th century, the word equality gained ground as a political ideal, but the idea was always vague. In this treatise, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn argues that it reduced to one simple and very dangerous idea: equality of political power a...
Man, Economy, and Liberty: Essays in Honor of Murray N. Rothbard

Walter Block (ed.) Updated 12/6/2011

In 1986, a remarkable party was held on Murray Rothbard's sixtieth birthday, and papers written in his honor were presented. Two years later the book was released. It contained many wonderful essays--both scholarly and humorous--on his work and l...
Power and Market: Government and the Economy

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 12/5/2011

What can government do to enhance social and economic well being? Nothing, says Murray N. Rothbard. Power and Market contains the proof. It will inoculate the reader against even the slightest temptation to invoke the state as a solution to any socia...
One Is a Crowd

Frank Chodorov Updated 9/15/2011

This is a treasure: One Is a Crowd. It collects Frank Chodorov's most profound essays on the topic of individualism, many of which have otherwise been unjustly lost to history. The reader will be riveted by his biographical essay on the meanin...
Anatomy of the State

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 7/14/2011

Murray Rothbard was known as the state's greatest living enemy, and this is his most succinct and powerful statement on the topic, an exhibit A in how he came to wear that designation proudly. He explains what a state is and what it is not, acc...
The Production of Security

Gustave de Molinari Updated 6/27/2011

The introduction to this stunning work is by Murray Rothbard, who calls French radical Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912) the great innovator in the market provision of security. Indeed, he might be regarded as the first proponent of what is called anar...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The Future

Edward Wayne Younkins Updated 5/11/2011

Edward Wayne Younkins Capitalism & Commerce, ch. 29: "The Future" Conceptual Foundations of Free Enterprise. Thanks to David Schatz....
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...
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...
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...
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...
The Trouble With Washington

Mises.org Updated 3/14/2011

Video version of Ron Paul's speech, "The Trouble With Washington", at the Prosperity, War & Depression seminar....
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 Private Production of Defense

Hans-Hermann Hoppe Updated 2/2/2011

Hans Hoppe takes on the most difficult subject in economic and political theory: the provision of security. He argues that the service is better provided by free markets than government, while addressing a hundred counter-arguments. Here we have an i...
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...
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...
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...
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 Market for Liberty

Morris and Linda Tannehill Updated 5/14/2010

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...
The Discovery of Freedom

Rose Wilder Lane Updated 5/14/2010

With new forewords by Roger Lea MacBride and Hans F. Sennholz What an American original was Rose Wilder Lane! What a treasure! She lived from 1886 until 1968, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and widely considered a silent collaborator on t...
1. The Prostitute

Walter Block Updated 10/18/2009

1. The Prostitute Walter Block Defending the Undefendable...
The State, The Enemy

Sir Ernest Benn Updated 6/5/2009

Ernest Benn The State, The Enemy...
Our Enemy, The State

Albert Jay Nock Updated 5/27/2009

What does one need to know about politics? In some ways, Nock has summed it all up in this astonishing book, the influence of which has grown every year since its publication. The Mises Institute has long hoped for an opportunity to produce a...
Omnipotent Government: The Rise of Total State and Total War

Ludwig von Mises Updated 5/27/2009

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...
Collectivism: A False Utopia

William Henry Chamberlin Updated 4/15/2008

William Henry Chamberlain Collectivism: A False Utopia (1937)...
God of the Machine

Isabel Paterson Updated 11/6/2007

Isabel Paterson The God of the Machine...
Society Without Coercion

Jarret B. Wollstein Updated 7/10/2007

Jarret B. Wollstein Society Without Coercion...
The Road Ahead: America's Creeping Revolution

John T. Flynn Updated 2/1/2007

John T. Flynn (1949) The Road Ahead...
"Do We Ever Really Get Out of Anarchy?"

Alfred G. Cuzan Updated 1/15/2007

William CochranCall61.qxd Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Paper Capture Plug-in deflation...
"The Consolidation of State Power via Reconstruction: 1865-1890"

Thomas J. DiLorenzo Updated 1/15/2007

skjar Microsoft Word - dilorenzo.doc...
"All Goverment is Excessive: A Rejoinder to Dwight Lee's "In Defense of Excessive Government""

Walter Block Updated 1/15/2007

skjar Microsoft Word - 035-082 Block on Lee 16-3 _Final_.doc...
"George Stigler and the Myth of Efficient Government"

Thomas J. DiLorenzo Updated 1/15/2007

skjar Microsoft Word - 055-073 DiLorenzo on Stigler 16-4 post Judy.doc...
"Free Exchange and Ethical Decisions"

Sorin Cucerai Updated 1/15/2007

Cucerai Free Exchange and Ethical Decisions Acrobat Distiller 3.01 for Power Macintosh...
"Comments on Colin Williams's Arguments Against Spooner"

Jan Narveson Updated 1/15/2007

Jan Narveson A Comment on Colin Williams's Agruments Against Spooner Acrobat Distiller 7.0 (Windows)...
"Libertarianism and Legitimacy: A Reply to Huebert"

Randy E. Barnett Updated 1/15/2007

Randy E. Barnett Libertarianism and Legitimacy: A Reply to Huebert Acrobat Distiller 7.0.5 (Windows)...
"Against Polanyi-centrism: Hayek and the Re-emergence of "Spontaneous Order""

John P. Bladel Updated 1/15/2007

william bladel.qxd Acrobat Distiller 6.0.1 (Windows)...
"Carson's Rejoinders"

Kevin A. Carson Updated 1/15/2007

william carson.qxd Acrobat Distiller 6.0.1 (Windows)...
The Moral Case for the Free Market Economy

Tibor R. Machan Updated 1/15/2007

theresa November 9, 1950 Adobe Acrobat 7.08 Paper Capture Plug-in...
"Review of <em>Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society</em> by Robert Higgs"

William L. Anderson Updated 1/15/2007

judy anderson.qxd Acrobat Distiller 7.0.5 (Windows) Our Enemy The State...
The Book of Journeyman: Essays from the New Freeman

Albert Jay Nock Updated 1/15/2007

Albert Jay Nock The Book of Journeyman...