Ludwig von Mises: The Man and His Economics, Israel M Kirzner

This volume is unique among Mises's works in that it contains a collection of essays in which he contested the theories of intellectuals he respected such as Carl Menger, Eugen von B hm-Bawerk, and Max Weber. Mises describes how value theory applies to human action at all times and places as opposed to economic theory, which applies only to a human action guided by economic calculation.

In a review of Epistemological Problems of Economics that was published in Teacher's College Record in 1965, F. A. Hayek stated, "If Professor Mises's Human Action . . . must be regarded as the definitive statement of his views, the distinctive features of his notions of the nature of social science have found their freshest expression in the present series of essays, dating from 1928 to 1933."

Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) was the leading spokesman of the Austrian School of economics throughout most of the twentieth century.

Bettina Bien Greaves is a former resident scholar and trustee of the Foundation for Economic Education and was a senior staff member at FEE from 1951 to 1999.

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.

Fr d ric 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.