The 10 Most Essential Austrian Works

Miscellaneous Newbies
1

In your opinion, what the 10 most essential works within the Austrian canon (or precursors to such thought, such as Bastiat or Spooner)? I don’t know if you want to take accessibility into account… but I’m curious to see what ten books the average subscriber to Austrian economics values above all others. I’m sure Human Action is going to dominate the number one spot… but regardless, I want to see.

2

  1. Human Action (Mises)

  2. Man, Economy and State (Rothbard)

  3. Prices and Production (Hayek)

  4. Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles (de Soto)

  5. Banking and the Business Cycle

  6. Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics (Reisman)

  7. Depression, War and Cold War (Higgs)

  8. A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism (Hoppe)

  9. Free Banking (Sechrest)

  10. Time and Money (Garrison)

3

Well Spooner wasn’t an Austrian do you mean just Austrian thought or classical liberals? I think ten great works are:

  1. Crisis and Leviathan

  2. Conceived in Liberty volume

  3. The Socialist Tradition

  4. Theory and History

  5. As We Go Marching

  6. Man, Economy, State

  7. History of Economic Thought volume

  8. Our Enemy, The State

  9. The Costs of War

  10. Nicomachean Ethics

4

Aristotle was neither Austrian, nor a classical liberal, nor even a liberal, he is at best a conservative, at worst an outright reactionary.

5

Relevance?

6

Haven’t read it, but Roderick Long has an article arguing for (what else?) Austro-Athenian fusion titled “The Classical Roots of Radical Individualism."

Here’s the abstract:

While the classical Greco-Roman tradition is not ordinarily thought of as associated with radical individualism, many of the central concerns of such radical individualists as Frédéric Bastiat, Herbert Spencer, Benjamin Tucker, Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, and Ayn Rand—including their views on human sociality, spontaneous order, and the relation between self-interest and non-instrumental concern for others—are shown to be inheritances from and developments of Platonic, Aristotelian, Epicurean, and Stoic ideas. Hence those working in the classical tradition have reason to explore the radical individualist tradition and vice versa.

N.B. You can PM me.

7

The relevance being is that its neither an Austrian, nor a classical liberal work. One may like Aristotle’s ethics, but the minute he talks about the state (i.e. the relevant portions of his ethical works to classical liberalism) he’s a reactionary. Classical liberalism, and libertarianism are political ideas that should not give opinions as to personal ethics, which is the only portion of his ethical work I could imagine a classical liberal, or libertarian smiling upon.

K. Popper in the first volume of The Open Society and Its Enemies shows how the philosophies of Plato, and then of Aristotle killed any liberal political philosophy in Athens in favor of a more reactionary one.

8

My own idiosyncratic list of classic and modern books:

  1. Human Action
  2. Man, Economy and State
  3. The Driving Force of the Market: Essays in Austrian Economics
  4. Capital and its Structure
  5. Time, Uncertainty, and Disequilibrium
  6. The Legacy of Max Weber
  7. Praxeology and Understanding
  8. Macro-economic Thinking and the Market Economy
  9. Capital in Disequilibrium: The Role of Capital in a Changing World
  10. The Theory of Dynamic Efficiency
9

Nobody has mentioned Bohm Bawerk’s Capital And Interest.

That’s a very important book.

10

Emphasis added

11

Please stay on topic, this thread is about ten most essential Austrian works - implying that all the works listed here are relevant to Austrian economics, and the politics associated with it. This is not just a thread for listing ten works one thinks are great - let’s keep it on topic.

12

Well then what was the reason for bringing up Lysander Spooner. He wasn’t an Austrian.

13

I’m not of the Austrian School, but my favorite Austrian work is:

Individualism and Economic Order - F. A. Hayek

I’m almost embarrassed that no one had it on their list.

14

Emphasis added.

15

Very interesting. I’d like to read that some day. Do you remember which Athenian thinkers Popper credited as being more liberal?

16

As an aside, George Soros is a disciple of Karl Popper and advocate of Popper’s “open society.”

17

Re: the OP

I think the most essential works to understand are:

  1. Principles of Economics by Menger
  2. Positive Theory of Capital by Bohm-Bawerk
  3. Theory of Money and Credit by Mises
  4. Human Action by Mises
  5. Socialism by Mises
  6. The Failure of the “New” Economics by Hazlitt
  7. Prices and Production by Hayek
  8. Man, Economy, and State by Rothbard
  9. Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought by Rothbard
  10. Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles by de Soto