Human Action

Today I'm going to be writing about Human Action by Ludwig von Mises. This is the big one, laying out the fundamentals of the Austrian school of economics. It's big insomuch as it is very important and big as in about 900 pages long. This book is not light beach reading. But it is very worthwhile.

Some background first. Dr von Mises wrote a version of this in German, but unfortunately it was published in 1940. Not a good time for German economics books. After he came to the United States he translated and expanded upon it for the 1949 publication of Human Action.

The first time I ever heard of Human Action was from this piece in the Daily Reckoning. It made me want to read the book. You might want to read this article first for the background and the inspiration to start reading it.

This book is not the best to start out with, unless you are able to comprehend at a graduate level. It is not for casual readers, but will pay great dividends to those who work through it step by step.

So, as usual, mises.org has extensive free resources for Mises' Human Action. They have a resource page, which contains links for the text in online versions, pdf versions and a complete audiobook reading of it. That page also links to chapter by chapter study guide pdfs.

And something I just found today, an interactive index of the whole book, linked to the online version.

Monday, I'll get into Murray Rothbard's Man, Economy and State with Power and Market.