Ludwig Von Mises: The Man & His Economics

Israel Kirzner, a former student of Ludwig von Mises, looks at the influences of the economic debates in Europe on von Mises' thought, traces his theories as they developed in his writings, and discusses both critical and supportive commentators on von Mises.

Ludwig von Mises: The Man and His Economics is a collection of Israel M. Kirzner’s work regarding his mentor, including a monograph on Mises and his work as well as several articles detailing how he impacted the world of economics.

Kirzner showcases Mises not only as a man with a “sparkling, fresh, fundamentally new interpretation” of the tenets espoused by the Austrian School of economics, but also as Kirzner’s mentor and academic compatriot. To this end, Kirzner’s essays on Mises elucidate the work of both men and convey Mises’s ideas with unparalleled brilliance.

For Kirzner, Mises is a man with a mission: to reignite economists’ search for truth. It was this mission that led both Mises and Kirzner to champion economic science and its teaching―i.e., the unhampered market and the system of free enterprise―in response to the encroaching philosophical and economic shadow of socialism. As Kirzner put it, “Mises saw the denial of economics as an alarming threat to a free society and to Western civilization. It is economics that is able to demonstrate the social advantages of the unhampered market.”

Mises’s work was fundamental in reviving classical-liberal ideas in Europe and the United States. He resurrected inquiry into the importance of entrepreneurial function and the science of human action at a time when many economists were turning away from it. Mises’s economics offers ammunition to those who understand that humans are ultimately made to live with freedom and dignity.

Israel M. Kirzner is a leading economist in the Austrian School and Professor Emeritus of Economics at New York University.

Peter J. Boettke is University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University and the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at the Mercatus Center. His publications include Living Economics, The Handbook of Contemporary Austrian Economics, and The Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics. He has been the editor of The Review of Austrian Economics since 1998.

Frédéric Sautet is Associate Professor at The Catholic University of America, Tim Busch School of Business and Economics. He is a specialist in Austrian market process theory and teaches entrepreneurship studies. He is the author of An Entrepreneurial Theory of the Firm and has published widely on entrepreneurship.