Ok, since I am going to be taking mainstream economics classes, I want to be prepared. I want to read both of these books, but at 1000 plus pages not including Murphy’s study guides, I wonder which one to undertake first.
Is ME&S the sequal to Human Action that Mises never wrote? In other words, should one read HA first, and then go on to ME&S?
Alternately, which is more accessible to the average dummy like myself? I have read both Rothbard and Mises before, and it seems that Rothbard used an economy of verbiage, while when reading Mises I needed a dictionary on hand.
If you’re going to be taking an economics course, go with ME&S. I’m not Rothbard’s biggest fan but it’s a great treatise and you’ll learn a lot from it, all the more so since you’ll be able to relate to what you’re learning in your classes. Rothbard’s book is also more up to date, which means it incorporates other parts of Austrian economics than Mises didn’t.
This said, I wouldn’t bother with Power & Market unless you really want to. It’s a nice elucidation of the effects government has on the market, but it’s not necessary to your understanding of Austrian economics and the market system and it repeats a lot of what is contained in the last chapter of ME&S.
Personally, I think a very good “elementary” book on Austrian Economics is Jesús Huerta de Soto’s Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles. I call it “elementary” only because it’s easy to read and covers the theory really well.
mozilla firefox browser addon. install it, and when you come across a word you dont understand double click it (the word), a little button shows up on the page next to your mouse, if you roll your mouse over it, a mini window hovers over the page (i.e. without browsing you away) and overlays dictionary information. it works fast and smooth. i think its awesome.