What do you think?
Rate this book
An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought #2
Classical Economics
The appearance of the famous (and massive) volumes of Rothbard's History of Economic Thought in a new edition is cause for great celebration. In Economic Thought Before Adam Smith, Murray Rothbard traces economic ideas from ancient sources to show that laissez-faire liberalism and economic thought itself began with the scholastics and early Roman, Greek, and canon law. He celebrates Aristotle and Democritus, for example, but loathes Plato and Diogenes. He is kind toward Taoism and Stoicism. He is no fan of Tertullian but very much likes St. Jerome, who defended the merchant class. Now, that takes us only to page 33, just the beginning of a wild ride through the middle ages and renaissance and modern times through 1870.
Classical Economics offers new perspectives on both Ricardo and Say and their followers. The author suggests that Ricardianism declined after 1820 and was only revived with the work of John Stuart Mill. The book also resurrects the important Anglo-Irish school of thought at Trinity College, Dublin under Archbishop Richard Whatley. Later chapters focus on the roots of Karl Marx and the nature of his doctrines, and laissez-faire thought in France including the work of Frederic Bastiat. Also included is a comprehensive treatment of the bullionist versus the anti-bullionist and the currency versus banking school controversies in the first half of the nineteenth century, and their influence outside Great Britain.
These are indeed the books that Mises himself longed to "A real history of economic thought," he said in 1955, "would have to point out the development of the doctrines and not merely list every book."
When these volumes first appeared, they were celebrated in Barron's and by top scholars around the world. They succeeded in changing the way people think about economic the beginnings (not Adam Smith, but the Spanish theologians), the dead ends (Marx), the great triumphs (Bastiat, for example), and the truly great minds (Turgot and many others he rescued from near obscurity).
Rothbard read deeply in thinkers dating back hundreds and thousands of years, and spotted every promising line of thought — and every unfortunate one. He knew when an idea would lead to prosperity, and when it would lead to calamity. He could spot a proto-Keynesian or proto-Marxist idea in the middle ages, just as he could find free-market lines of thought in ancient manuscripts.
Many scholars believe this was his most important work. The irony is that it is not the work it was supposed to be, and thank goodness. He was asked to do a short overview of the modern era. He ended up writing more than 1,000 pages of original ideas that remade the whole of intellectual history up through the late 19th century.
Once Rothbard got into the project, he found that most all historians have made the same they have believed that the history of thought was a long history of progress. He found that sound ideas ebb and flow in history. So he set out to rescue the great ideas from the past and compare them with the bad ideas of the "new economics."
His demolition of Karl Marx is more complete and in depth than any other ever published. His reconstruction of 19th-century banking debates has provided enough new ideas for a dozen dissertations, and contemporary real-money reform. His surprising evisceration of John Stuart Mill is cause to rethink the whole history of classical liberalism.
Most famously, Rothbard demonstrated that Adam Smith's economic theories were, in many ways, a comedown from his predecessors in France and Spain. For example, Smith puzzled over the source of value and finally tagged labor as the source (a mistake Marx built on). But for centuries prior, the earliest economists knew that value came from within the human mind. It was a human estimation, not an objective construct.
cd The unfinished 3rd volume in audio
Rothbard was a pioneer in incorporating the sociology of religion into the history of economic ideas. He saw that the advent of Christianity had a huge impact on the theory of the state. He observed the rise of absolutism and theory of nationalism that came with the reformation. He traced the changes in the Western view toward lending and interest payments over the course of a thousand years.
The number of insights in these volumes are countless. Every page, every paragraph, bursts with intellectual energy and the author's fiery passion to tell the reader the remarkable story of economics. Many reviewers have remarked that Rothbard's accomplishment seems super-human. He seems to have read everything. His originality is overwhelming. His passion for liberty and integrity in science is evident. His disdain toward those who sell out to the state is manifest as well.
Rothbard worked on these volumes in the ten years before his death. He also gave a series of lectures on his ongoing research. As a result, we all had very high expectations. But nothing co...
Classical Economics offers new perspectives on both Ricardo and Say and their followers. The author suggests that Ricardianism declined after 1820 and was only revived with the work of John Stuart Mill. The book also resurrects the important Anglo-Irish school of thought at Trinity College, Dublin under Archbishop Richard Whatley. Later chapters focus on the roots of Karl Marx and the nature of his doctrines, and laissez-faire thought in France including the work of Frederic Bastiat. Also included is a comprehensive treatment of the bullionist versus the anti-bullionist and the currency versus banking school controversies in the first half of the nineteenth century, and their influence outside Great Britain.
These are indeed the books that Mises himself longed to "A real history of economic thought," he said in 1955, "would have to point out the development of the doctrines and not merely list every book."
When these volumes first appeared, they were celebrated in Barron's and by top scholars around the world. They succeeded in changing the way people think about economic the beginnings (not Adam Smith, but the Spanish theologians), the dead ends (Marx), the great triumphs (Bastiat, for example), and the truly great minds (Turgot and many others he rescued from near obscurity).
Rothbard read deeply in thinkers dating back hundreds and thousands of years, and spotted every promising line of thought — and every unfortunate one. He knew when an idea would lead to prosperity, and when it would lead to calamity. He could spot a proto-Keynesian or proto-Marxist idea in the middle ages, just as he could find free-market lines of thought in ancient manuscripts.
Many scholars believe this was his most important work. The irony is that it is not the work it was supposed to be, and thank goodness. He was asked to do a short overview of the modern era. He ended up writing more than 1,000 pages of original ideas that remade the whole of intellectual history up through the late 19th century.
Once Rothbard got into the project, he found that most all historians have made the same they have believed that the history of thought was a long history of progress. He found that sound ideas ebb and flow in history. So he set out to rescue the great ideas from the past and compare them with the bad ideas of the "new economics."
His demolition of Karl Marx is more complete and in depth than any other ever published. His reconstruction of 19th-century banking debates has provided enough new ideas for a dozen dissertations, and contemporary real-money reform. His surprising evisceration of John Stuart Mill is cause to rethink the whole history of classical liberalism.
Most famously, Rothbard demonstrated that Adam Smith's economic theories were, in many ways, a comedown from his predecessors in France and Spain. For example, Smith puzzled over the source of value and finally tagged labor as the source (a mistake Marx built on). But for centuries prior, the earliest economists knew that value came from within the human mind. It was a human estimation, not an objective construct.
cd The unfinished 3rd volume in audio
Rothbard was a pioneer in incorporating the sociology of religion into the history of economic ideas. He saw that the advent of Christianity had a huge impact on the theory of the state. He observed the rise of absolutism and theory of nationalism that came with the reformation. He traced the changes in the Western view toward lending and interest payments over the course of a thousand years.
The number of insights in these volumes are countless. Every page, every paragraph, bursts with intellectual energy and the author's fiery passion to tell the reader the remarkable story of economics. Many reviewers have remarked that Rothbard's accomplishment seems super-human. He seems to have read everything. His originality is overwhelming. His passion for liberty and integrity in science is evident. His disdain toward those who sell out to the state is manifest as well.
Rothbard worked on these volumes in the ten years before his death. He also gave a series of lectures on his ongoing research. As a result, we all had very high expectations. But nothing co...
544 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
12 people are currently reading
223 people want to read
About the author
Murray N. Rothbard
282 books1,114 followersMurray Newton Rothbard was an influential American historian, natural law theorist and economist of the Austrian School who helped define modern libertarianism. Rothbard took the Austrian School's emphasis on spontaneous order and condemnation of central planning to an individualist anarchist conclusion, which he termed "anarcho-capitalism".
In the 1970s, he assisted Charles Koch and Ed Crane to found the Cato Institute as libertarian think tank.
In the 1970s, he assisted Charles Koch and Ed Crane to found the Cato Institute as libertarian think tank.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 1, 2024
THE SECOND VOLUME OF ROTHBARD'S "AUSTRIAN" HISTORY OF ECONOMICS
Murray Newton Rothbard (1926-1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School of economics, and a prominent figure in the Libertarian movement; the previous volume is An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (2 Vol. Set). He also wrote books such as 'Man, Economy and State,' 'Power and Market: Government and the Economy,' 'America's Great Depression,' etc.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1995 book, "this work is an overall history of economic thought from a frankly 'Austrian' standpoint... This is the only such work by a modern Austrian... Not only that: this perspective is grounded in what is currently the least fashionable though not the least numerous variant of the Austrian School: the 'Misesian' or 'praxeological.'" (Pg. vii) He adds, "leaving out religious outlook, as well as social and political philosophy, would disastrously skew any picture of the history of economic thought... The entire work is longer than most since it insists on bringing in all the 'lesser' figures... I hope that, for the reader, the unwonted length will be offset by the inclusion of far more human drama than is usually offered in histories of economic thought." (Pg. xiii)
He observes that J.B. Say, "arrived at the unique method of economic theory [of] what Ludwig von Mises was... to call 'praxaeology.' Economics, Say realized, was based... on very general facts... so deeply rooted in the nature of man and his world that everyone... would give his assent." (Pg. 12-13) He adds, "[Say] offered us a theory of total government spending as well as a theory of overall taxation. And that theory... [amounted] to: that government is best (or 'least bad') that spends and taxes least." (Pg. 43) He asserts, "regardless of how much devotion is professed to laissez-faire or the gold standard, at the heart of every banking school man, including those professing a free banking position, lies an unreconstructed inflationist." (Pg. 262)
He contends, "for Marx and other schools of communists, mankind, led by a vanguard of secular saints, would establish a secularized kingdom of heaven on earth." (Pg. 317) He adds, "Marx cannot and does not attempt to explain how a system of total greed becomes transformed into total greedlessness" (pg. 323), and "There is no place in his system where Marx is fuzzier that at its base: the concept of historical materialism." (Pg. 372) He goes on, "Here is surely the most glaring single hole in the Marxian model. Marx acknowledged that... profit rates clearly tend toward equality... and that real prices ... therefore do not exchange at their Marxian quantity-of-labour values. Marx admitted this crucial problem, and promised that he could solve the problem successfully in a later volume of 'Capital.' He struggled with this problem for the rest of his life, and never solved it." (Pg. 413)
He adds, "there is a glaring inner contradiction at the heart of Marxian economics that is never resolved. If the capitalists suffer over time from a falling rate of profit, and workers suffer from increasing impoverishment, who is BENEFITING in the distribution of the economic pie?... in the Marxian system, the landlords have disappeared, increasingly and rapidly assimilated into the capitalist class. So how can BOTH mighty classes lose out under developing capitalism?" (Pg. 428) He concludes, "[Marx] created a veritable tissue of fallacies. Every single nodal point of the theory is wrong and fallacious... The Marxian system lies in absolute tatters and ruin... [and is] an atheized variant of a venerable Christian heresy." (Pg. 433)
Much more "to the point" than Volume 1, this book will be essential reading for any students of Austrian economics, or of economic history in general.
Murray Newton Rothbard (1926-1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School of economics, and a prominent figure in the Libertarian movement; the previous volume is An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (2 Vol. Set). He also wrote books such as 'Man, Economy and State,' 'Power and Market: Government and the Economy,' 'America's Great Depression,' etc.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1995 book, "this work is an overall history of economic thought from a frankly 'Austrian' standpoint... This is the only such work by a modern Austrian... Not only that: this perspective is grounded in what is currently the least fashionable though not the least numerous variant of the Austrian School: the 'Misesian' or 'praxeological.'" (Pg. vii) He adds, "leaving out religious outlook, as well as social and political philosophy, would disastrously skew any picture of the history of economic thought... The entire work is longer than most since it insists on bringing in all the 'lesser' figures... I hope that, for the reader, the unwonted length will be offset by the inclusion of far more human drama than is usually offered in histories of economic thought." (Pg. xiii)
He observes that J.B. Say, "arrived at the unique method of economic theory [of] what Ludwig von Mises was... to call 'praxaeology.' Economics, Say realized, was based... on very general facts... so deeply rooted in the nature of man and his world that everyone... would give his assent." (Pg. 12-13) He adds, "[Say] offered us a theory of total government spending as well as a theory of overall taxation. And that theory... [amounted] to: that government is best (or 'least bad') that spends and taxes least." (Pg. 43) He asserts, "regardless of how much devotion is professed to laissez-faire or the gold standard, at the heart of every banking school man, including those professing a free banking position, lies an unreconstructed inflationist." (Pg. 262)
He contends, "for Marx and other schools of communists, mankind, led by a vanguard of secular saints, would establish a secularized kingdom of heaven on earth." (Pg. 317) He adds, "Marx cannot and does not attempt to explain how a system of total greed becomes transformed into total greedlessness" (pg. 323), and "There is no place in his system where Marx is fuzzier that at its base: the concept of historical materialism." (Pg. 372) He goes on, "Here is surely the most glaring single hole in the Marxian model. Marx acknowledged that... profit rates clearly tend toward equality... and that real prices ... therefore do not exchange at their Marxian quantity-of-labour values. Marx admitted this crucial problem, and promised that he could solve the problem successfully in a later volume of 'Capital.' He struggled with this problem for the rest of his life, and never solved it." (Pg. 413)
He adds, "there is a glaring inner contradiction at the heart of Marxian economics that is never resolved. If the capitalists suffer over time from a falling rate of profit, and workers suffer from increasing impoverishment, who is BENEFITING in the distribution of the economic pie?... in the Marxian system, the landlords have disappeared, increasingly and rapidly assimilated into the capitalist class. So how can BOTH mighty classes lose out under developing capitalism?" (Pg. 428) He concludes, "[Marx] created a veritable tissue of fallacies. Every single nodal point of the theory is wrong and fallacious... The Marxian system lies in absolute tatters and ruin... [and is] an atheized variant of a venerable Christian heresy." (Pg. 433)
Much more "to the point" than Volume 1, this book will be essential reading for any students of Austrian economics, or of economic history in general.
February 10, 2017
Continua a 'saga' do primeiro volume. Pontos altos são o retrato extremamente engraçado de John Stuart Mill: "John Mill's enormous popularity and stature in the British intellectual world was partially due to his very mush-headedness." E as origens do comunismo em duas heresias: a da criação como uma separação metafísica da Unidade Deus-Homem (great cosmic blob); e da reunião apocalípitica do Homem a Deus no Reino de Deus na terra. Marx, é claro, 'ateizou' -- materializou, por assim dizer -- essas ideias legadas de Hegel, Plotino, Anabatistas e outros.
Temos aqui também grandes seções dedicadas a Ricardo, Jeremy Bentham (o Big Brother), James Mill, JB Say, e toda a tradição laissez-faire francesa.
Temos aqui também grandes seções dedicadas a Ricardo, Jeremy Bentham (o Big Brother), James Mill, JB Say, e toda a tradição laissez-faire francesa.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews