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Henry Hazlitt

Economics in One Lesson Hardcover – January 1, 2008

by Henry Hazlitt (Author), Walter Block (Introduction)

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

If you want to know where American supporters of free markets learned economics, take a look at Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. A brilliant and pithy work first published in 1946, at a time of rampant statism at home and abroad, it taught millions the bad consequences of putting government in charge of economic life. College students all across America and the world still use it and learn from it. It may be the most popular economics text ever written.

Mr. Hazlitt--journalist, literary critic, economist, philosopher--was one of the most brilliant public intellectuals of our century. He was born on November 28, 1894, and died on July 8, 1993, at the age of 98. In his final years, he often expressed surprise that Economics in One Lesson had become his most enduring contribution. He wrote it to expose the popular fallacies of its day. He did not know that those fallacies would be government policy for the duration of the century.

Hazlitt also wanted to be known for his other contributions, which include a novel, a trialogue on literary criticism, two large treaties on economics and moral philosophy, several edited volumes, some sixteen other books, and countless chapters in books, articles, commentaries, reviews. He once estimated that he had written 10 million words and that his collected works would run to 150 volumes.

Product details

Publisher : Ludwig von Mises Institute; 1st edition (January 1, 2008)
Language: : English
Hardcover : 206 pages
ISBN-10 : 193355021X
ISBN-13 : 978-1933550213
Item Weight : 12.8 ounces

Best Sellers Rank: #487,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9,687 in Economics (Books)

Customer Reviews:
2,071 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		79%
4 star		12%
3 star		5%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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LJPowell

Must Read!

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2018

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This book should be REQUIRED READING for anyone who works, pays taxes, or votes. Yes, that means YOU! I have a Bachelors degree in Economics and I can honestly say that I got (and retained) more from this book than from my four-year college program.

If you have even a passing interest in Economics, pick up this book. You’ll be glad you did!

150 people found this helpful

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K. L. Gould

This book is easy to read but it is not "partisan"

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2018

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Hazlitt's book is mainly a commentary on Bastiat's What is seen and unseen essay, but his examples are clear and convincing. The book was last updated in 1978, but several chapters are highly relevant to the tariff and immigration arguments raging today. Hazlitt's insights into the harmful effects of continual inflation and an aversion to profits for private firms are also relevant to today's most important issues. This book is easy to read but it is not "partisan". Nor is it ideological. Hazlitt does a good job of using facts to support his claims. Some will not agree with his conclusions, but no one can claim that Hazlitt presents a deliberately biased or unbalanced case. A poor understanding of economics underlies many bad decisions which have been made over the past 80 years. Hazlitt's book is one step in the educational process needed to repair the damage done.

72 people found this helpful

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Jane Clark

Gift Suggestion for Generations X, Y (Millennials) & Z

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2019

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The author, Henry Hazlitt, was born in 1894 and wrote the first version of this book in 1946. The prose is clearly of an earlier generation, so some might complain about readability. But it is a 5" x 8" book containing 200 pages. Get over it.

The best thing about the book is Hazlitt's reasoned address of life-cycle ramifications of spending decisions. No dry lectures on supply and demand or capital allocation. Hazlitt teaches these concepts through stories of common societal issues. He predicts outcomes through reasoned arguments. The reader can accept or reject Hazlitt's reasoning, but can't walk away uninformed by a different way of thinking. Hazlitt asks the reader to consider what happens next ... and next ... and next...when government (the taxpayer) deliberately inserts itself into a free market system. He drops a pebble in a still pond and gives a name to each ripple that radiates from the disturbance. Extrapolating, "Free" is just a pebble - it is the inevitable ripples that must be named and accepted with eyes (and history books) wide open if determined to proceed.

Hazlitt was a Libertarian and makes no apologies for his preference that government interfere in an economy only when the public good is incontrovertible. That said, he often acknowledges that it is legitimate to make exceptions. These acknowledgement always come with the exhortation that outcomes are reasonably predictable and interference in the natural process comes with peril that must be clearly understood and accounted for before proceeding. Accept his theses or not, you won't finish this book without an alternative understanding of long term effects of capital allocation decisions - public and private. An added benefit is that readers will gain some insight into why fiscal conservatives are so cranky all the time. Alternatively, cranky fiscal conservatives will get to exclaim: "See there!! I'm right!!"

On a personal note: I gave copies of this book to my children and nephews. During their working years, Gens X, Y (Millennial), and Z will most likely inherit an unimaginably swollen public debt. Their life experience so far is that the Keynesian "circle of government spending" cannot, by design, go off the rails. If it becomes a train wreck, I want those in my family to understand this different perspective of economic effects of government involvement in the life of a society. The Austrian school of economics used in Hazlitt's stories is not "The One Truth" some people assert, but it needs to be equally understood by those that, in their lifetime, will be left holding the bag.

26 people found this helpful

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Chase G.

Outlines the libertarian/classical liberal economic view

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2016

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This changed the way I thought about well-intentioned government intervention and the economy. You should go into the book understanding that it has a clear libertarian/classical liberal orientation. It primarily has a deductive approach, which has its problems, but is incredibly useful to help readers ask the right questions about how the outcomes and goals of well-intentioned policies can diverge. The main premise is that the economic consequences of a policy need to be understood not only in light of the immediate effects on the target of the policy, but also in terms of how that intervention can distort allocation decisions of actors the policy might overlook. The book primarily looks at policies that amount to subsidies and price fixing in many forms. Be prepared for Hazlitt to kill many of the sacred cows of modern government intervention.

61 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Heavy conservative bias

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2019

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This book is written with a heavy conservative bias and the author has an obnoxious voice that makes it unreadable. Would not recommend, wish I had never bought this.

17 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Oliver A. Williams

Its more like one lesson in economics

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 5, 2020

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The title is disconnected with reality, you won't learn much economics from this which was pretty dissapointing. The point of the book is kind of the Thatcher / Cameron / May argument about not spending more than you earn or magic money trees. Of course this is pretty much monetarism 101 which is fine if that floats your boat but not the only game in town. You don't have to be spendy mcspendface to realise there is a time and place for Keynesianism or government intervention in the economy (lord knows there has been enough of it in the last 15 years). Its fine to be more one side of this particular fence than the other but good to acknowledge the other side exists. Disingenuous analogies between households and the overall economy help no one.

7 people found this helpful

acompton

Fun to read and, while biased, a great summary of the case for keeping government out the economy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2020

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I read this very quickly and enjoyed almost all of it, the only exception was some areas that were a bit repetitive as similar examples were given of the same point. The key lesson though being that economic policies are often designed for the group most immediately affected, but ignore the long-term, secondary and tertiary effects on everyone else. Some great examples of this are then given. It's also all written in an engaging and enthusiastic style, making it easy to read even for the non-expert.

One point just to make though is that despite the title this is not an introduction to economics for a beginner. Instead this is a summary of his frustrations with common economic proposals, so it's easier to read if you already have some economics under your belt.

Finally I'd mention that the author has some clear ideological views that he tries to push. A lot of this is because he repeatedly refutes arguments because they result in an inefficient economy, taking the view that a perfect world is one where every task is done by the person/country/company that can do that task most efficiently in terms of least capital, resources and personnel. This ignores two key points. Firstly, systems often have to sacrifice efficiency for robustness, and sometimes having inefficient local production subsidised in some way is useful as it is insurance against supply disruption. The other point is that at no point does he mention inequality as a factor. I'd think that there are many trade-offs where aggregate human happiness is greater with a smaller pie, more evenly shared, than a larger pie unequally divided.

Overall though a good book, and a nice quick read. Whether you think government involvement in the economy should be increased or reduced this is a good book to read, making the argument for limited government involvement in the economy clearly and concisely, against which the reader can form their own view.

2 people found this helpful

AndyM

If you want one economics text, look no further

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 23, 2017

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From a simple scenario of a broken window, Hazlitt develops a series of arguments which demonstrate some of the fallacies which we now seem to accept as gospel. Lucid, well written and full of lessons our current crop of politicians (of all parties) should learn, this book taught me more about economics and the laws of cause and effect than most economics texts I have read.

If you believe that government is the answer to every problem then this isn't the book for you - you will disagree with something on almost every page. If you think our government is the problem then buy this now and you will be reassured to discover just how right you are.

9 people found this helpful

What a bore

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 24, 2020

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Home spun economic philosophy for libertarians. Thing is I'm sympathetic to his philosophy but that doesn't mean I'm an amoeba. If Mr. Hazlitt or his acolytes believe economic life is that simple then we'd be living in a libertarian state by now. Much like it's nemesis communism its all very well in theory so long as reality doesn't get in the way. Or god forbid those messy humans. Don't bother reading this unless it's an option instead of a root canal.

One person found this helpful

pawelgonzalez

If you are interested in economy then this is a book for you.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2014

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I would recommend this book for everyone who is really interested in economy.
I choose this rating because it explains the idea of `free market` which is in this case an economy in which government and bureaucrats creating it make as little amount of regulations as possible. In the beginning of the book author says that it is his intention to convey his message to as wide number of people as possible. That is why he decided to use every-day language in its simplest form. I think that he menage to do it. Thanks to the simplicity of the language I could understand his lesson.
In this book he gives numerous examples in which he shows government attempt to regulate an economy in the name of ..., to make it better and to improve the wellbeing of some groups of interest. He shows how those acts and policies often have unintended consequences which in many cases have derogatory effects on economy as a whole. He reminds as that as with many things there are two sides of the story, one negative and one positive.
If you read it then you will be able to notice deceptions and illusions which are created intentionally or not by bureaucrats and politicians and other economist.
It is a small refreshing book. In the end of the book you will be rewarded with a nice list of books to read.
Everyone can read it, and that is what makes this book amazing. It was pleasure to read it because.
If there is a common sense then this book is full of it. You will be surprised how insightful his observations are, just enough to convey the idea without loosing someone in detail.
Someone in reviews wrote that this book is not about economics. That person is wrong. It`s all about economics. It is about the world in which we live and our cooperation with each other in it. It shows how that cooperation can improve our lives or not, and what has positive or negative impact on it.

2 people found this helpful

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