Study Guide to Man, Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles with Power Market: Government and the Economy

by Robert P. Murphy

The prose of Man, Economy, and State by Murray Rothbard is as clear as a bell. But its sheer size (1441 pages!) is intimidating. After all, Rothbard systematically covers the whole of economic science.Fortunately, the young and brilliant economist Robert Murphy has come to the rescue!In writing the Study Guide to Man, Economy, and State, he had his students in mind. He wanted to design a great teaching tool, one that would reach students the same way a private tutor would. He wanted to help Rothbard's magnum opus have permanent impact on their thinking.He accomplished his goal! The guide provides a roadmap to this massive book, complete with summaries, technical notes, annotations of key contributions, and study questions. He puts it all into a manageable size, with a section devoted to each chapter of the Scholar's Edition (which includes both Man, Economy, and State and Power and Market).To write a guide of this sort is harder than it looks. Murphy first had to master the material in every way, enough so that he could write short summaries of the chapters.He then used his advanced training to discuss and elaborate some of the more technically difficult sections of the book. And because Rothbard often does not explain what is innovative in his own theories, Murphy draws attention to the unique contributions to economic science found therein. He tops if off with a series of thought-provoking questions that deal with the core lessons of each chapter.Murphy spent more than a year writing and editing this guide. As you will see, he is an excellent teacher and he set out to do this in a way that appeals to students of all ages.One of the goals of the Mises Institute has long been to make this book accessible to everyone, particularly people who are studying economics, and especially those who are interested in Austrian economics. This powerful guide makes the text open up as never before.It is ideal for classroom use, and also for private study. Another use didn't occur to the author until after he finished he uses it to prepare lectures for class! He says now that he doesn't know how he taught without it before.Murphy sought to write a teaching guide but he ended up writing a manual to Man, Economy, and State that will quickly become a staple of the literature. Would that every book of this size had such a guide (and, yes, he has now completed one for Human Action too!), and would that every guide were as clear and useful as this one.Professor Murphy is an extraordinary talent with a great gift for helping students understand economics. Now he can be your teacher, too.The chapters of this guide match the twelve of Man, Economy, and State and the seven of Power and Market; appendices are handled within each chapter. A typical chapter begins with a one-page summary, followed by a detailed outline, "contributions" or observations from the author, technical details, and, finally, ten study-guide questions.Robert Murphy writes in the introduction, "I strongly urge all those who take Austrian economics seriously to read (at least large portions of) Rothbard's treatise; I would go so far as to say that a modern academic cannot really call him- or herself an Austrian economist without doing so. For those who may be intimidated or discouraged by the massive volume, I hope that this study guide will at least "chart the territory" and allow them to begin in those topics that most interest them. At that point, I suspect, Rothbard's spell will overtake them and they will be compelled to read all 1,441 pages."To search for Mises Institute titles, enter a keyword and LvMI (short for Ludwig von Mises Institute); e.g., Depression LvMI

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction

255 pages, Spiral-bound

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Robert P. "Bob" Murphy is an Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist.

Reviews

[Patrick S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book because Robert Murphy is one of my favorite Austrian economists and just a well round good guy. There isn't too much "Murphy-ism" here as it is more of a straight study guide. With such a difficult book as "Man, Economy and State" is, it was nice to have a review in this book of the key points. That really did help. There are some more examples that Murphy gives than is found in the original book. I would have liked to seen more examples and maybe different ways to think about the concepts Rothbard covered. Also, Murphy has study questions but the answers are not found in this book of them. As an independent learner in a non-classroom setting, this part of the book was almost useless although some of the questions have you thinking about implications of the ideas which would be good to cover. Don't look to this book to help explain more the original source but only as a review of it in a more broken down fashion with a few more examples. Final Grade - B