Bibliography

GENERAL READING

THOSE WHO WISH to ponder the policy implications of the Austrian view at greater length can’t do better than picking up a copy of Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson. Hazlitt is one of the finest writers ever to tackle economic issues. In this book, inspired by Bastiat’s conception of the seen and unseen aspects of policy, he examines a wide variety of economic interventions.

Carl Menger’s Principles of Economics is a model of clear exposition and is packed with insights that retain their value 130 years after publication. Perhaps because Menger is laying out the basis for marginalist, subjectivist economics for the first time, he explains his concepts carefully enough that the “intelligent layman” with no economic background should be able to grasp his ideas.

Israel Kirzner’s new biography, Ludwig von Mises: The Man and His Economics focuses on Mises’s economic thought. It is another good introduction to Austrian ideas.

If you are serious about the study of Austrian economics, either Ludwig von Mises’s Human Action, The Scholar’s Edition or Murray Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State should be tackled next. They are both large, imposing books, but both are well written, and they are the two best sources for a systematic overview of Austrian theory. Which to choose? If you are familiar with neoclassical economics, pick Rothbard’s book, as it carefully explains the points of connection and divergence between the Austrian and neoclassical approaches. If you are more philosophically inclined, start with Mises, as he spends more time on the philosophical background behind his approach. Whichever you choose first, by all means continue with the other, if time and interest permits.

For more bibliographic references, grouped by subject, see the Austrian Economics Study Guide: http://www.mises.org/study.asp. There is also a web site for this book with more information: http://www.economicsforrealpeople.com/.

Below is a list of some other recommended books, organized by the chapter(s) to which they are most relevant. For the most part, I’ve limited the list to things that I’ve read and can vouch for. There are certainly excellent books that aren’t on the list simply because I’m not familiar with them.

CHAPTER ONE: WHAT’S GOING ON?

Israel Kirzner, The Economic Point of View.

Michael Oakeshott, On Human Conduct.

CHAPTER TWO: ALONE AGAIN, UNNATURALLY

Carl Menger, Principles of Economics.

Ludwig von Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science.

CHAPTER THREE: AS TIME GOES BY

Israel Kirzner, An Essay on Capital.

Ludwig Lachmann, Capital and Its Structure.

Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr., and Mario Rizzo, Economics of Time and Ignorance.

CHAPTER FOUR: LET’S STAY TOGETHER

Leonard E. Read, I, Pencil.

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations.

CHAPTER FIVE: MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING

James Buchanan, Cost and Choice: An Inquiry in Economic Theory.

Milton Friedman, Monetary Mischief: Episodes in Monetary History.

Ludwig von Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit.

CHAPTER SIX: A PLACE WHERE NOTHING EVER HAPPENS

Ludwig von Mises, Human Action.

Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State.

CHAPTER SEVEN: BUTCHER, BAKER, CANDLESTICK MAKER

Israel M. Kirzner, Competition and Entrepreneurship.

Ludwig von Mises, “Profit and Loss,” Planning for Freedom.

CHAPTER EIGHT: MAKE A NEW PLAN, STAN

Howard Baetjer, Software as Capital.

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest.

Ernst Cassirer, Language and Myth.

Lachmann, Capital and Its Structure.

CHAPTER NINE: WHAT GOES UP, MUST COME DOWN

Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit.

Murray Rothbard, The Case Against the Fed.

Leland Yeager, The Fluttering Veil.

CHAPTER TEN: A WORLD BECOME ONE

Peter J. Boettke, Calculation and Coordination: Essays on Socialism and Transitional Political Economy.

F.A. Hayek, Individualism and Economic Order.

F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom.

F.A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty.

F.A. Hayek, The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism.

Ludwig von Mises, Socialism.

Murray Rothbard, Freedom, Inequality, Primitivism and the Division of Labor.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE THIRD WAY

Frédéric Bastiat, Selected Essays in Political Economy.

Tom Bethell, The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages.

Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else.

Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson.

Sanford Ikeda, The Dynamics of the Mixed Economy.

Steven Landsburg, Price Theory.

CHAPTER TWELVE: FIDDLINGWITH PRICES WHILE THE MARKET BURNS

Hans Sennholz, The Politics of Unemployment.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: TIMES ARE HARD

Anthony M. Carilli and Gregory M. Dempster, “Expectations in Austrian Business Cycle Theory: An Application of the Prisoner’s Dilemma.”

Roger Garrison, Time and Money: The Macroeconomics of Capital Structure.

Steven Horwitz, Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective.

W.H. Hutt, The Keynesian Episode.

Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit.

Murray Rothbard, America’s Great Depression.

Richard K. Vedder and Lowell E. Gallaway, Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED

Ronald Coase, Essays on Economics and Economists.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: ONE MAN GATHERS WHAT ANOTHER MAN SPILLS

Ikeda, The Dynamics of the Mixed Economy.

Landsburg, Price Theory.

Murray Rothbard, The Logic of Action I.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: STUCK ON YOU

Kirzner, Competition and Entrepreneurship.

Stan J. Liebowitz and Stephen Margolis, Winners, Losers, and Microsoft.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: SEE THE PYRAMIDS ALONG THE NILE

Bastiat, Selected Essays in Political Economy.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

John Gray, Enlightenment’s Wake: Politics and Culture at the Close of the Modern Age.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe, “Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis.”

Timur Kuran, Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification.

Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science.

APPENDIX A: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL

Benjamin M. Anderson, Economics and the Public Welfare.

Frank A. Fetter, Capital, Interest, and Rent.

F.A. Hayek, The Fortunes of Liberalism.

Randall G. Holcombe, ed., 15 Great Austrian Economists.

Kirzner, Ludwig von Mises: The Man and His Economics.

Murray Rothbard, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith.

Murray Rothbard, Classical Economics.

APPENDIX B—PRAXEOLOGICAL ECONOMICS VS. MATHEMATICAL ECONOMICS

Israel Kirzner, The Meaning of the Market Process.

Landsburg, Price Theory.

Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science.