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 Yale University, the edition that introduce to American audiences the first thorough and scientific demolition of what was and is one of the great delusions in the history of the world.
This masterwork is much more than a refutation of the economics of socialism (although on that front, nothing else compares). It is also a critique of the implicit religious doctrines behind Western socialist thinking, a cultural critique of socialist teaching on sex and marriage, an examination of the implications of radical human inequality, an attack on war, socialism, and refutation of collectivist methodology.
In short, Mises set out to refute socialism, and instead yanked out the collectivist mentality from its very roots. For that reason, Socialism led dozens of famous intellectuals, including a young F.A. Hayek, into a crisis of faith and a realist/libertarian political orientation. All the collectivist literature combined cannot equal the intellectual achievement of this one volume.
The contents of this volume include:
- Foreword by F. A. Hayek
- Introduction
- Part I. Liberalism and Socialism
- 1. Ownership
- 2. Socialism
- 3. The Social Order and the Political Constitution
- 4. The Social Order and the Family
- Part II. The Economics of a Socialist Community
- Section I. The Economics of an Isolated Socialist Community
- 5. The Nature of Economic Activity
- 6. The Organization of Production Under Socialism
- 7. The Distribution of Income
- 8. The Socialist Community Under Stationary Conditions
- 9. The Position of the Individual Under Socialism
- 10. Socialism Under Dynamic Conditions
- 11. The Impracticability of Socialism
- Section II. The Foreign Relations of a Socialist Community
- 12. National Socialism and World Socialism
- 13. The Problem of Migration Under Socialism
- 14. Foreign Trade Under Socialism
- Section III. Particular Forms of Socialism and Pseudo-Socialism
- 15. Particular Forms of Socialism
- 16. Pseudo-Socialist Systems
- Section I. The Economics of an Isolated Socialist Community
- Part III. The Alleged Inevitability of Socialism
- Section I. Social Evolution
- 17. Socialistic Chiliasm
- 18. Society
- 19. Conflict as a Factor in Social Evolution
- 20. The Clash of Class Interests and the Class War
- 21. The Materialist Conception of History
- Section II. The Concentration of Capital and the Formation of Monopolies as Preliminary Steps to Socialism
- 22. The Problem
- 23. The Concentration of Establishments
- 24. The Concentration of Enterprises
- 25. The Concentration of Fortunes
- 26. Monopoly and Its Effects
- Section I. Social Evolution
- Part IV. Socialism as a Moral Imperative
- 27. Socialism and Ethics
- 28. Socialism as an Emanation of Asceticism
- 29. Christianity and Socialism
- 30. Ethical Socialism, Especially That of the New Criticism
- 31. Economic Democracy
- 32. Capitalist Ethics</ul<ul>
- Part V. Destructionism
- 33. The Motive Powers of Destructionism
- 34. The Methods of Destructionism
- 35. Overcoming Destructionism
- Conclusion: The Historical Significance of Modern Socialism
- Epilogue
