1881–1973
Ludwig von Mises
The systematiser. Praxeology, calculation, the theory of money.
FEATURES IN MODULES: 01 · THE ORIGIN · 03 · SOUND MONEY · 04 · TIME PREFERENCE · 05 · THE KNOWLEDGE PROBLEM · 06 · WHY NOW
Ludwig von Mises is the figure around whom the modern Austrian school is organised. A student of Böhm-Bawerk's, he extended the marginalist project into money (*Theory of Money and Credit*, 1912), socialism (*Socialism*, 1922 — including the calculation argument that demolished the feasibility of central planning), and the systematic treatise that codified the entire framework (*Human Action*, 1949).
Forced into exile by the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, Mises spent his second career at NYU teaching a private seminar that produced the next generation: Murray Rothbard, Israel Kirzner, Hans Sennholz. Where Hayek made the public-facing case in books like *The Road to Serfdom*, Mises remained the rigorous internal foundation. Every subsequent Austrian thinker is, at some level, working out implications of Misesian premises.
“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion.”
Key works
Human Action
1949
The systematic treatise. ~900 pages. Read once a decade and find new things.
The Theory of Money and Credit
1912
Marginal-utility theory extended to money itself. Foundation of Austrian Business Cycle Theory.
Socialism
1922
The systematic critique that produced the calculation argument. Hayek said it changed his life.