The Viennese Students of Civilization: The Meaning and Context of Austrian Economics Reconsidered

Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics

by Erwin Dekker

This book argues that the work of the Austrian economists, including Carl Menger, Joseph Schumpeter, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, has been too narrowly interpreted. Through a study of Viennese politics and culture, it demonstrates that the project they were engaged in was much the study and defense of a liberal civilization. Erwin Dekker shows the importance of the civilization in their work and how they conceptualized their own responsibilities toward that civilization, which was attacked left and right during the interwar period. Dekker argues that what differentiates their position is that they thought of themselves primarily as students of that civilization rather than as social scientists, or engineers. This unique focus and approach is related to the Viennese setting of the circles, which constitute the heart of Viennese intellectual life in the interwar period.

Genres: Economics, History

232 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 26, 2016

Reviews

[JC NoKey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Therapeutic nihilism … rejection of social engineering

[Tomislav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting overview of the cultural and political themes in the works of Austrian School economists. The book details not only the usual institutional themes linked to the economics but the general cultural views of important Austrian economists. It argues that a lot of their work in economic theory was deeply connected to the idea of European liberal civilization which they saw as threatened by leftist and rightist political movements and general cultural shifts. This seems to be the only lengthier study of Austrian "great politics" – defending and re-moralizing Western capitalist civilization – which, the author argues, was the main purpose of their work, rather than solving practical economic problems.

The book is primarily focused on the most important Austrian economists of the first and second generation. Hayek is obviously the most common reference as he completely gave up on technical economics and devoted himself to political science, but the book tries to identify the same type of thinking in his predecessors and also gives some attention to the usually ignored Friedrich von Wieser. It also discusses some Viennese intellectuals who weren’t connected with the School and it doesn’t include more radical and practically oriented strain of American Austrians.