I’m looking for a book for my dad’s birthday. He’s a conservative, I’d say with some libertarian sympathies. I know he purchased Hayek’s book The Road to Serfdom, which seems to have favor amongst conservatives. I would like to get him a book from The Man himself, Mises. Ideally something that gives some insight to the Austrian method. Assuming he liked Road to Serfdom, is there anything in particular he would like?
I’m currently reading Human Action. While I think it’s great, I think it may be too academic for my dad’s taste. He’s intelligent, but technical material is just not his thing. Is there a somewhat less heavy book by Mises that you would recommend? He seems to have written a lot, I’m not sure what’s considered good, particularly as an intro to Austrian Econ. I’ve heard that Rothbard wrote some more easy going intros to Austrian Econ, but I’d rather go with a name my dad would trust more. I don’t think my dad holds Rothbard in very high regard.
Though I might just get him Human Action if all else fails. I know there are multiple editions. Assuming I default to this, which would you recommend?
Thanks a bunch.
Mises’s Liberalism is a good soft piece of work digestible by the layman. However, nothing can act as a substitute for Human Action in teaching principles of economics, and the first hundred or so pages are where he expounds the Austrian method in good detail. The Ultimate Foundation of the Economic Science is IMO also good and not hard for a layman to read. Personally, if he has conservative sympathies, I’d get him Hoppe’s Democracy - the God that Failed or A Theory of Socialism And Capitalism as Hoppe is very lucid and is reaching out to a conservative audience in the former, as well as explicating the Austrian method in the early chapters. The book is ideal for converting conservatives away from statism, and argues in the last few chapters that their goals cannot be fulfilled by a statist society. This may soften him up to Rothbard and also works by Mises where he more or less repudiates most of what passes for conservatism (like in Liberalism.) Up to you really. Another option is one of Ron Paul’s books. My suggestion is to get him one by Mises and one by Hoppe or Paul. I personally tried to knock some sense into my own father with Economics in One Lesson and Economics for Real People. He liked the former quite a lot and my guess is that it’s because it is applied economics that touches upon issues that at least enter the sphere of most people’s attention in their daily lives.
Thanks.
Thing is, I gave him Hoppe’s Private Defense essay one time, and he really wasn’t impressed, so I’m not going to try to convert him to anarcho-capitalism at this point. I’m just going to try to give him more things to think about that don’t necessarily clash with what he believes. I think he would be more likely to take an established name like Mises seriously. Maybe a little down the line I’ll use it to push him further.
I’ll check out the two you recommended.
Hoppe’s book might still do the trick either way, but if you want a good book I guess Liberalism is the way to go.
You know, Hulsmann’s biography of Mises might also be pertinent. The reason is that Hulsmann doesn’t just limit himself to a dry recount of Mises’s life but packs in a lot of history, context and economic analysis. Understanding Mises’s writings relies on understanding the man himself, so it’s not a bad gift. I mean the book packs in information on the Austrian school, its various theoreticians, its theories, its epistemology &c. Seems ideal to me. There’s also Mises’s The Anti-capitalistic Mentality which he might like since Mises’s engages in criticism of anti-market ideologies therein.
orblivion:
One of the best short introductions to Mises’s thought I have run across is: The Free Market and Its Enemies: Pseudo-Science, Socialism, and Inflation.
This book is comprised of nine lectures that Mises gave in 1951. The lectures were taken down in shorthand by Bettina Bien Greaves, a student and close friend of Mises. The great thing about this book is that Mises is speaking directly to an audience, and so the ideas are explained more in layman’s terms. There is also an introduction by Richard Ebeling, one of Mises’s biographers. This book is only 81 pages, but it is one of the best I have read.
I’m looking through Liberalism right now, and it is also excellent.
I still have to look through Liberalism a bit, but just comparing the chapter titles, I actually think The Ultimate Foundation of the Economic Science might be better, since it’s more about economics, and more what I’m looking for. Reading the text, it seems a lot less academic than Human Action, so it might be just what I’m looking for, though I’m going to investigate a little further.
Though they’re both pretty cheap on Amazon, hell maybe I’ll get both.