Ludwig Von Mises: The Man and His Economics (Library of Modern Thinkers) [Hardcover]

Israel M. Kirzner (Author)

Book Description

Series: Library of Modern Thinkers | Publication Date: June 2001

The work of Ludwig von Mises exercised enormous influence upon the thought of libertarians, classical liberals, anticommunists, and even traditionalist conservatives during the postwar years. But, as Israel Kirzner shows in the second installment in our Library of Modern Thinkers series, Mises’ dedication was always first and foremost to discovering truths—and destroying falsehoods—within the science of economics. In this thorough yet concise introduction to Mises’ life, economics, and influence, Kirzner (a former student of Mises and an influential free-market economist himself) traces the key elements of Mises’ life, explains his core contributions to economic theory, and assesses his impact on twentieth-century economics and political thought.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Austrian-born economist Ludwig von Mises (who died in 1973) was a professor at New York University for nearly 25 years, until 1969. A free-market advocate who believed in the power of the consumer, Mises was one of the leading members of what is called "the Austrian school of economics." There are already any number of scholarly works that examine Mises' life and his theories. This latest book, though, is part of a new series called Library of Modern Thinkers, which is designed to make the ideas of less well known sociologists, political scientists, and economists accessible to a more general audience. Kirzner, author of Discovery, Capitalism, and Distributive Justice (1989), was a student and ardent admirer of Mises. He sketches a brief biographical portrait of his former professor to provide "the human and historical context within which Mises' intellectual contributions emerged." Kirzner then examines Mises' impact on contemporary economics, outlines his methodology, and summarizes his key ideas--focusing on the market process, money, cycles, interest, and free markets. David Rouse
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From the Inside Flap

The Library of Modern Thinkers is a series of authoritative introductions to the thought of important intellectual figures. Critical yet accessible, they will instruct anyone seeking to understand the central questions of our time.

“Professor Kirzner’s Ludwig von Mises: The Man and His Economics is a thorough and detailed presentation of the work of the greatest economist of the twentieth century. Kirzner’s clear analysis of the theoretical contributions of Mises is a needed scholarly achievement.”
—Leonard P. Liggio, Law School, George Mason University, and Distinguished Senior Scholar, Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University

“ISI and Professor Kirzner are to be congratulated for this stimulating look at the life and work of Ludwig von Mises, who was surely the economic genius of the century. This book, by a leading student and follower, helps gain for Mises the credit he deserves for explaining the business cycle and proving that socialism cannot work, among the many other contributions expertly chronicled in these pages.”
—Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., Founder and President, The Ludwig von Mises Institute

“There is no one better suited than Israel Kirzner for writing a biographical piece on Ludwig von Mises. As would be expected, the result of Kirzner’s efforts is a masterful work that presents a rather complete picture of Mises’ economic vision. In clear and concise prose, the economic thought of Mises is explored, giving the reader a greater knowledge of, and appreciation for, the economics of Mises and the Austrian School.”
—John J. Bethune, Kennedy Chair of Free Enterprise, Barton College, Wilson, North Carolina

Ludwig von Mises was one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century, and almost certainly the most significant free-market economist. Mises played a major role in the development of the Austrian school of economics, whose exponents—including Nobel laureates like F. A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Gary Becker—radically transformed the “dismal science.”

In this volume, the most accessible book-length treatment of Mises’ life and work, Israel Kirzner follows Mises from his famous Privatseminar in Vienna—which included luminaries such as Hayek and Eric Voegelin—to his reluctant emigration from Geneva, to his last years at New York University. Kirzner illuminates the sources and forces behind Mises’ intellectual development. In so doing, he provides a useful and understandable overview of the principles of Austrian economics and the laissez-faire economic policies that became associated with it.

In addition, Kirzner makes clear that the importance of Ludwig von Mises is not limited to the realm of economics. Mises exercised enormous influence on the thought of libertarians, classical liberals, anticommunists, and even traditionalist conservatives during the postwar years. For Mises, the tenets of classical liberal political theory corresponded profoundly with the fundamental truths of economics. And yet he was no ideologue; a stalwart defender of the possibility and importance of wertfrei (value-free) science, his dedication was always first and foremost to discovering truths—and destroying falsehoods—within the discipline of economics.

Economic truths, Mises argued, could not be ignored in utopian attempts to use the power of the state to bring about perfect economic justice or equality. In refreshingly lucid terms, Kirzner describes Mises’ original achievements in explaining the logic of entrepreneurship and dynamic competition, as well as his contributions to monetary theory, the theory of interest rates, and the theory of the business cycle. Even more importantly, Kirzner shows how Mises was able to relate abstract economic theory to concrete problems of public policy.

This volume is the second installment in ISI Books’ Library of Modern Thinkers series. A noteworthy free-market economist in his own right, Israel Kirzner was Mises’ doctoral student and protégé at New York University. The personal warmth and understanding that Kirzner has for his book’s subject make it an unusually lively read. This is a book for all students of economics, as well as anyone looking for a deeper understanding of twentieth-century political and social thought.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Intercollegiate Studies Institute (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882926617
• ISBN-13: 978-1882926619
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,074,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mises Expounded and Defended, August 7, 2001

By 

C. Parish - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ludwig Von Mises: The Man and His Economics (Library of Modern Thinkers) (Hardcover)

by Joseph R. Stromberg-- Israel Kirzners Ludwig von Mises is a welcome addition to the literature on Mises and economics. It is a very useful book, not only for the academic reader unfamiliar with Misess work but also for the intelligent layman. What is quite startling is just how much the author manages to accomplish within the compass of a fairly short work (220 pages).

Kirzner announces at the outset that he intends to tell "the story of Mises in his role of economist" (p. ix). His aim is to expound the "subtlety and depth of Misesian economics" while clarifying issues he thinks many readers of Mises have failed to grasp. Furthermore, Kirzner makes the case that Mises was the greatest free-market economist of the twentieth century.

The book begins with a thorough summary of Misess life (1881-1973) and of his achievements. It covers his education in Vienna in the shadow of the German Historical School and his break with that outlook after becoming acquainted with the opposed views of the Austrian School through reading and talking with Carl Menger (p. 3). Mises attended Böhm-Bawerks seminar and began publishing technical papers in economics. His first important work, The Theory of Money and Credit, came out in 1912, breaking new ground and extending the Austrian paradigm.

Kirzner introduces the years following World War I, during which time Mises advised the Austrian Chambers of Commerce, helping to avert runaway inflation in Austria; conducted his famous seminar; and published many important books and papers. The Nazi Anschluss drove Mises into exile in Switzerland, but in 1940, he came to the United States and later became a citizen. His masterwork, Human Action, was published in English in 1949, the same year that he began his famous New York seminar. That seminar continued into 1969.

Following the biographical sketch of Mises, Kirzner drops back to set Misess work in the broader context of early twentieth-century economic thought. Kirzner gives thumbnail sketches of the competing schoolsGerman Historical, Marshallian, and Walrasian. This setting allows him to zero in on what was new and revolutionary in Misess writings. According to the author, Misess first great accomplishment was to integrate money and monetary theory into general Austrian economics, grounded on insights about marginal utility, subjective value, and acting human beings. Kirzner shows how and why Mises did this and how this led to his breakthrough into the Austrian theory of business cycles.

The author continues with a discussion of Misesian economics as a system self-consciously built upon rigorous, if unpopular, epistemological foundations. Kirzner contends that Mises shored up these foundations "because he came to be convinced that the vitally important lessons which economics can teach are likely to be dismissed on methodological grounds by those representing special interests" (p. 69). Mises believed that the rise of economic theory was, in itself, revolutionary in that it undercut earlier moralistic and power-political approaches to the study of human societies.

Kirzner proceeds in a straight line to an excellent summation of the Austrian systems architectonic structure. Apparent detours turn out to be necessary background to Misess views and shed more light on them by giving an account of competing ideas and traditions. There is a generous evenhandedness in the way in which Kirzner sorts out differences and agreements between Mises and Hayek. The lucid presentation of difficult concepts make this a useful book even for those who already know a great deal about the subjects covered.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid But Not Spectacular, October 12, 2002

By 

Greg Feirman (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ludwig Von Mises: The Man and His Economics (Library of Modern Thinkers) (Hardcover)

This is a good overview of Mises, his life and background and his economics. It is workmanlike, basic and easy to read. It is not spectacular but it is very solid.

I did enjoy reading it, however. The first two chapters give alot of background information on von Mises's life and work and I found that interesting because it is always nice to know a bit about an author as a person rather than just his work. And the bottom line about von Mises is that he was a couragous, honest and brilliant man and the proof is in the tremendous admiration earned by worthy friends and supporters.

The Third chapter takes up von Mises's ideas on methodology, his a priorism and his commitment to value free economics. The two page section "The Intellectually Revolutionary Character of Economics" is really good. Section 5 of the chapter, "Mises' Methodological Defense" didn't really help me understand Mises's case for a priorism as opposed to empiricism, but I already know that from "Human Action" (huan events are complex and variables can't be held constant so it is always possible to come up with different plausible explanations for happenings; you can never isolate specific causes and their effects because it is not clear what is causing what). Section 6 "Mises and the A Priori: The Extremist?" explains what Hayek thought was a critique of Mises and Kirzner shows how it wasn't but I couldn't follow him. The one page section "Mises and the A Priori: Not So Extreme!" was appreciated because it gives alot more plausibility to Mises's claims about economics having to proceed a priori; I like the idea of economic logic but I think empirical studies and just common sense observation have got to play a role in economics, though I need to think about this more.

Chapter Four was pretty familiar but "The Entreprenurial Character of the Misesian Market Process" was welcome because it just emphasized for me how central the entreprenuer is to Mises's conception of how the market works.

I skipped Chapter Five on monetary theory, the business cycle and interest rates but it looks pretty good.

Chapter Six tries to address how Mises reconciled his idea of value free economics with his passionate arguments for capitalism and against socialism and interventionism. Socialism can't work and interventionism produces consequences the intervenionists didn't want and eventually leads to socialism (which doesn't work ;) I accept the arguments by Ayn Rand on the foundations and standard of ethics and so I can argue rationally for capitalism but I don't know that von Mises can.

In the end, I think that one has to read von Mises himself to get an appreciation of just how deep and comprehensive his grasp of human action and economics is. But this book does provide a little context and a useful overview. Maybe I was expecting too much; after all, how are you going to do justice to one of the greatest thinkers of all time in 200, double spaced pages? Can't be done.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, October 21, 2001

By 

Steve Jackson "stevejackson100atyahoocom" (New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ludwig Von Mises: The Man and His Economics (Library of Modern Thinkers) (Hardcover)

ISI Books has just come out with a series called Library of Modern Thinkers, which will contain summaries of the thought of important (for lack of a better term) conservative and libertarian thinkers - kind of like an Oxford University Press "Past Masters." According to the jacket, current and forthcoming titles will cover Nisbet, Ropke, Oakeshott, de Jouvenal, Lytle. Francis G. Wilson and Will Herberg (in other words, thinkers that wouldn't be included in a series that contains volumes on such worthies as Foucault and Derrida).

If Prof. Kirzner's work on von Mises is representative, then this series will be an important contribution to the publishing world. Prof. Kirzner received his doctorate in economics in 1957 under von Mises and has written a number of important studies. This book is well organized and informative. It starts out with a chapter on von Mises' life, a chapter on his role in economics, and chapters on specific facets of his economic thought. It concludes with an overview of von Mises as the 20th century's preeminent free-market thinker.

As a layman in economics, I learned a lot about von Mises the man and economist. For example, there is a discussion on methodological differences between Hayek and von Mises, a discussion of the pioneering nature of much of his monetary thought, and how his thought differs from neoclassical economics. I found particularly insightful Prof. Kirzner's comment that Human Action isn't simply a compendium of Austrian thinking, but is truly a brilliant extension of Austrian thought to a vast swath of economic and sociological issues.

I have one big problem with the book. It is over 200 pages long, but it is double-spaced! In fact, there are no block quotes. Another quibble: according to the jacket, Friedman and Becker are "exponents" of the Austrian School.