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: 508 records

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

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, there was Menger. It was this book that reformulated, and really rescued, ec...
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 analysi...
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 episod...
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

The libertarian idea of society without a state appeals to many people, but, however enticing the idea, it is often dismissed as utopian. How could an anarchist society defend itself against large, centralized states? Defense, it has been alleged,...
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

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, in great detail with great rigor. With excerpts from books and art...
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 towar...
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...
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. The t...
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 economi...
Theory of Socialism and Capitalism, A

Hans-Hermann Hoppe Updated 3/23/2011

New 2nd Edition w/ new Intro by Hans Hoppe 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 pos...
The Betrayal of the American Right

Murray N. Rothbard Updated 3/23/2011

Rothbard identifies a movement he calls the “Old Right.” This was a libertarian movement that included Albert Jay Nock, H. L. Mencken, and John T. Flynn. It was in part a reaction to American entry into World War I, and this group joined with revisio...
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

Would a libertarian society recognize patents as legitimate? What about copyright? In Against Intellectual Property, Stephan Kinsella, a patent attorney of many years’ experience, offers his response to these questions. Kinsella is altogeth...
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 shows how money must originate from a commodity. In an ideal system, a dollar would be a unit of weight, and paper money would operate strictly as warehouse receipts for the stock of the monetary metal. There would be no fractional reserve...
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 for...
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...