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Economics in One Lesson [Hardcover]

Henry Hazlitt , Walter Block
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (347 customer reviews)


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Book Description

May 22, 2008
Here is a publishing event: the new Mises Institute edition of the classic book that has taught many millions sound economic thinking. It is a hardbound volume, priced very low thanks to special benefactors, and now available in quantity discounts for distribution to your friends, family, and anyone you meet who needs to understand what economics implies for the society, government, and civilization.

Henry Hazlitt wrote this book following his stint at the New York Times as an editorialist. His hope was to reduce the whole teaching of economics to a few principles and explain them in ways that people would never forget. It worked. He relied on some stories by Bastiat and his own impeccable capacity for logical thinking and crystal-clear prose.
He was writing under the influence of Mises himself, of course, but he brought his own special gifts to the project. As just one example, this is the book that made the idea of the "broken window fallacy" so famous.
What thrills us in particular about this new edition is that it is beautiful, it is hardcover, and it is newly typeset for modern readers. It has a full index. It includes a wonderful foreword by Walter Block. It's the right size, shape, and feel perfect for making this book central to all educational efforts of the future.

This is the book to send to reporters, politicians, pastors, political activists, teachers, or anyone else who needs to know.

Professor Block explains that it was this book that turned him on to economics as a science. He believes that it is probably the most important economics book ever written in the sense that it offers the greatest hope to educating everyone about the meaning of the science.

Written for the non-academic, it has served as the major antidote to fallacies in the popular press, and has appeared in dozens of languages and printings. It's still the quickest way to learn how to think like an economist. And this is why it has been used in the best classrooms more than sixty years.

Many writers have since attempted to beat this book as an introduction, but have never succeeded. Hazlitt's book remains the best. Even if you own this book already, or have several past editions, you will want to have this book as your own as a wonderful testament to its place in the world of ideas.

In putting this edition together, we chose to work from Hazlitt's own first edition because it contains the core of what is crucial here without later updates that only date the book. As with Mises and Human Action, the author's first instincts were the best ones.


Editorial Reviews

Review

Hazlitt was a remarkably lucid writer, and this short book is justly regarded as a classic....But it comes across even better in Jeff Riggenbach's interpretation. Riggenbach has a knack for making routine discursive sentences come alive...he could be a college professor lecturing, the kind of lecturer who really can teach. He sounds reasonable, engaging and thoroughly likeable. --AudioFile

If there were a Nobel Prize for clear economic thinking, Mr. Hazlitt s book would be a worthy recipient...like a surgeon s scalpel, it cuts through...much nonsense that has been written in recent years about our economic ailments. --J. W. Hanes (former undersecretary of the treasury)

If there were a Nobel Prize for clear economic thinking, Mr. Hazlitt s book would be a worthy recipient...like a surgeon s scalpel, it cuts through...much nonsense that has been written in recent years about our economic ailments. --J. W. Hanes (former undersecretary of the treasury) --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From the Inside Flap

A simple, straightforward analysis of economic fallacies that are so prevalent they have almost become a new orthodoxy. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 206 pages
  • Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute; 1st edition (May 22, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 193355021X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1933550213
  • Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (347 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #427,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
745 of 773 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Students Love Hazlitt! May 17, 2001
Format:Paperback
I teach Principles of Microeconomics, and I always use this book for extra credit. Students who hate reading long, boring, stuffy text books always like Hazlitt, and give him high reviews every single semester. The very readable chapters are short (about 3-6 pages in most cases), and told in story form to make Hazlitt's point. This makes it possible for even freshmen with notoriously short attention spans to read the day's chapter.

Hazlitt's "one lesson" is simple, and told in Chapter 1. The rest of the chapters are all stories in which the lesson plays a prominent role. In short, Hazlitt doesn't merely tell us the lesson, he actually shows us the lesson -- over and over and over, until we've got it.

With stories on tariffs, minimum wage, rent controls, taxes. unions, wages, profits, savings, credit, unemployment, and so much more, Hazlitt takes some of the most difficult economic concepts and makes these easily accessible to the lay person who has no economic training, background, or even inclination.

It's one thing for me to recommend this book. It's quite another for my students to recommend it semester after semester. I can imagine no higher praise.

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266 of 284 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars I've missed my life's calling. July 12, 2001
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I should have studied economics. Hazlitt's book is remarkably readable, coherent, and logical. It just confirms that truth is usually understandable, whereas complicated obfuscation is usually the major alarm bell that tips you off when people are trying to shaft you. This guy really knows his stuff.

The one lesson is so simple that it takes about five minutes to read the chapter about it. The rest of the book lists various scenarios in which that lesson applies. The general principle of the lesson applies so naturally to various specific cases that it simplifies economics immensely. Hazlitt must have studied logic as well as economics.

The one lesson is simply this: economic planning should take into account the effects of economic policies on all groups, not just some groups, and what those effects will be in the long run, not just the short run. That's it. That's the lesson. Fallacious economic policies almost invariably seek to benefit one group at the expense of all others, or to bring about short-term benefits at the expense of long-term benefits. With this as his thesis, Hazlitt examines the numerous manifestations of such fallacies in different situations.

His chapters are short, his prose is easy to follow, and his logic is compelling. I've never taken an economics class in my life, yet I had no trouble following the reasoning in this book. This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand basic economics and the keys to widespread prosperity in the long run.

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172 of 189 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent primer in basic economics November 26, 2001
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The average American knows very little about economics or monetary theory. That's why they tend to believe whatever they see and hear on their televisions. By reading this short book, you'll gain a basic understanding of economics, and an explanation of the many myths that are taken as truths.

In the final chapter of this book, Hazlitt revists his work 30 years later (he was writing in 1978, and the book came out originally in 1946). He surmises that during that period, nothing was learned. If anything, he says, subjects related in the book (wage rates, price controls, government "make work") have become more political. I wonder what Hazlitt would say now.

You need to read this book in order to appreciate the real consequences of actions your government wants to take. The theme emphasized over and over in the book is that actions must be thought through to see what the long term effects will be, not just the highly visible short term ones.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Austrian economics ftw
I love reading the truth. These are the basic principles and guidelines for a free-market economy and a laissez-faire Government influence. Read more
Published 23 hours ago by Mondicus91
5.0 out of 5 stars Good common sense. Easy read.
I am currently reading this book. Easy read. Teaches you to stretch your common sense a tad and put your grey matter into motion. Read more
Published 11 days ago by Donna Cornell
4.0 out of 5 stars This book was helpful
I'm not sure if this book helped me get an "A" in Economics or was it from having a good Professor. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Carmen
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent common sense viewpoints
Hazlitt points out fallacies in government policy:
encouraging consumerism confuses savings and investment with spending,
pretended entitlement benefits,
induced... Read more
Published 18 days ago by Gderf
5.0 out of 5 stars By far the best book on economics
Hazlitt explains sound economics in simple, layman's terms. By far the best book on economics you will read. Highly recommend.
Published 19 days ago by J Harmon
5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite book of all time
If you read and understand this book (which isnt hard....no fancy terms or math equations) you will understand economics better than 99% of most economists. Read more
Published 24 days ago by Sean Coolbaugh
2.0 out of 5 stars too wordy
The one lesson is very slow until he gets to the point. (if he ever gets there at all) There are better out there
Published 25 days ago by S. Friedland
5.0 out of 5 stars Great for economic dummies.
Keynesian economics has not worked and will not work with the free market philosophy and this treatise explains why not in simple terms. Read more
Published 1 month ago by William Turnquist
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read economics book.
Still in the process of reading this book, but it is obvious within the first few chapters how valuable this text is in understanding common beliefs about economics that are often... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mike
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read!
This is very informative and a must read to anyone who wants to understand basic economics. Some chapters may have to read more than once. Read more
Published 2 months ago by David Kilpatrick
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Amazon Wrong Cover
It seems you were sent was the old, outdated edition, published in 1988. The one you ordered was probably the new one published 20 years later, in 2008. The new, 50th Anniversary edition, with the colorful cover, is described as follows:

"Publication Date: September 25, 2008
A new trade... Read more
Feb 16, 2012 by E. Meyers |  See all 2 posts
"his prescient text dissembles economic fallacies"? Be the first to reply
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