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Collection: IHS Studies in Economic Theory
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Appendices - Lawrence S. Moss, The Economics of Ludwig von Mises: Toward a Critical Reappraisal [1976]

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The Economics of Ludwig von Mises: Toward a Critical Reappraisal, ed. with an Introduction by Laurence S. Moss (Kansas City: Sheed and Ward, 1976).

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


Appendices

APPENDIX A

Chronology

1881September 29. Born in Lemberg, Austria. Father, Arthur Edler von Mises. Mother, Adele (Landau) von Mises. Brother, Richard von Mises (1883–1953).
1892–1900Attended Akademische Gymnasium, Vienna.
1900Entered University of Vienna to study for a degree in law.
1906February 20. Received doctor of jurisprudence degree (literally, doctor of both, canon and roman, laws).
1902First book published, Die entwicklung des gutsherrlich-bäuerlichen l∗erhaltnisses in Galizien: 1772–1848 (Leipzig: Franz Deuticke, 1902); a historical account of the Galician peasants and their land tenure arrangements.
1902–3Active duty with the Austro-Hungarian army.
1909–34Economic councillor of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (Kammer für Handel, Gewerte und Industrie). Mises∗ chamber appraised legislation and advised the government on public policy.
1912Published Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel (translated in 1934 as Theory of Money and Credit); most important work on monetary theory.
1913Appointed “professor extraordinary” at University of Vienna.
1914–18Active military duty in World War I as captain in the artillery, stationed on Eastern Front in Carpathian Mountains, in Russian Ukraine, and Crimea; toward end of war recalled to general staff office in Vienna.
1918–20Director of Austrian Restitution-and-Settlements Office (Abrechnungs Amt).
1920Published essay “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth.
1922Published Die Gemeinwirtschaft: Untersuchungen über den Sozialismus;translated as Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis.
1923Published Die Geldtheoretische Seite des Stabilisierungsproblems; untranslated. See “Monetary Economics,” note 1.
1926Lecture tour of the United States under sponsorship of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial.
1927Founded Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research (Oesterreichisches Institut fur Konjunkturforschung).
1927Published Liberalismus; translated as The Free and Prosperous Commonwealth.
1928Published Geldwertstabilisierung und Konjunkturpolitik; untranslated. See “Monetary Economics,” note 1.
1929Published series of articles attacking various forms of state interventions: Kritik des Interventionismus: Untersuchungen Zur Wirtschaftspolitik und Wirtschaftsideologie der Gegenwart, Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1929; untranslated.
1931Published Die Ursachen der Wirtschaftskrise: Ein Vortrag; untranslated. See “Monetary Economics,” note 1.
1933Published Grundproblems der Nationalökonomie; translated as Epistemological Problems of Economics.
1934–40Accepted professorship at the Graduate Institute of International Studies (Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales) In Geneva, Switzerland.
1938Married Margit Sereny-Herzfeld in Geneva.
1940Immigrated to the United States; became a citizen in 1946.
1940–44Guest of the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York.
1940Published Nationalökonomie: Theorie des Handelns und Wirtschaftens; untranslated.
1942Visiting professor at National University of Mexico.
1944Published Bureaucracy.
1944published Omnipotent Government.
1945–69Appointed visiting professor at Graduate School of Business Administration, New York University.
1946–73Advisor to Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., Irvington-on-Hudson, New York.
1946Consultant to National Association of Manufacturers—Economic Principles Commission.
1947Co-founder of Mont Pelerin Society, an international association of intellectuals devoted to limited government and the market economy.
1949Published Human Action: A treatise on Economics.
1954–55Advisor to the National Association of Manufacturers.
1956Published The Anti-Capitalist Mentality.
1956February 20. Awarded a Festschrift on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his doctorate: On Freedom and Free Enterprise. Edited by Mary Sennholz. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand, 1956.
1957Published Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution.
1957Awarded honorary doctor of laws degree, Grove City College, Pennsylvania.
1961October. Quarterly Journal of Mont Pelerin Society published a tribute to Mises on the occasion of his 80th birthday.
1962Published The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method.
1962October 20. Award received from Austrian Government (Oesterreichisches Ehrenzeichen zur Kunst und Wissenschaft).
1963June. Awarded honorary doctor of laws degree from New York University, New York.
1964July. Awarded honorary doctor of political science degree from University of Freiburg, Germany.
1969September. Named “Distinguished Fellow” of American Economics Association. For citation see Introduction.
1969Published The Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics.
1969May. Retired from New York University.
1971September 29. Honored on the occasion of his 90th birthday by a Festchrift. In two volumes: Toward Liberty. Edited by F. A. Hayek and other members of Mont Pelerin Society. Menlo Park, Calif.: Institute for Humane Studies, 1971.
1973October 10. Died at 92 years of age.

APPENDIX B

Major Translated Writings of Ludwig von Mises

For a comprehensive bibliography of Mises∗ writings, see Bettina Bien [Greaves], The Works of Ludwig von Mises (Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Foundation for Economic Education, 1969).

1912The theory of Money and Credit. Translated by H. E. Batson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959. The first German edition of this book appeared in 1912 under the title Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel. For a discussion of the different editions of this book, see p. 40, note 1. This book is the subject of “The Monetary Economics of Ludwig von Mises” in this volume.
1920–21“Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth.” In Collectivist Economic Planning: Critical Studies on the Possibilities of Socialism, edited by Friedrich A. Hayek; translated by S. Adler. London: Routledge & Kegan, Paul, 1963. This article originally appeared under the title “Die Wirtschaftsrechnung im sozialistischen Gemeinwesen.” Archiv fur Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik 47 (1920–21): 86–121. The main points of this article are treated in Murray N. Rothbard's paper “Ludwig von Mises and Economic Calculation under Socialism” in this volume.
1922Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis. Translated by J. Kahane. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1951. This translation is from the second German edition (1923), which included two articles by Mises: “Die Arbeit im sozialistischen Gemeinwesen. Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft und Sozialpolitik N. F. 1 (1921): 459–76 and “Neue Beiträge zum Problem der sozialistischen Wirtschaftsrechnung.” Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik 51 (1924): 488–500. The first edition of Socialism appeared under the title Die Gemeinwirtschaft: Untersuchungen über den Sozialismus. Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1922. As the title implies, Mises criticized the Socialist arguments from the point of view that the sociological and economic consequences of socialism are precisely the opposite of what is intended by the advocates of socialism. He also attacked the argument that socialism is historically necessary.
1927The Free and Prosperous Commonwealth: An Exposition of the Ideas of Classical Liberalism. Translated by Ralph Raico. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand, 1962. This translation is from Liberalismus. Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1927. Here Mises restated the case for economic freedom on purely scientific grounds, that is, grounds that do not appeal to natural law or other metaphysical notions. William Baumgarth treats this book in his paper “Ludwig von Mises and the Justification of the Liberal Order” in this volume.
1933Epistemological Problems of Economics. Translated by George Reisman. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand, 1960. This translation is from Grundprobleme der Nationalökonomie: Untersuchungen über l'erfahren, Aufgaben und Inhalt der Wirtschafts und Gesellschaftslehre. Jena: Fustav Fischer, 1933. Here Mises emphasized how the distinctive feature of economics is its concern with subjective states of individual valuation. Mises explained how this approach affects the economist's view of value, capital, and other market phenomena. A large part of the work is spent criticizing the position of those who deny the subjective character of economic phenomena.
1944Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1944. In this book Mises treated the concept of “nationalism” and how it invariably grows to block out cosmopolitan ideals of free trade and international peace. Mises' analysis of the rise of German Nazism, as a symptom of a more far-reaching mentality about government and its relation to man, serves as a warning about the dangerous risks that accompany departures from classical liberals ideals.
1944Bureaucracy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962. This is one of the earliest works by an economist explaining the sources of bureaucratic inefficiency. According to Mises, it is the absence of “profit-and-loss” accounting that distinguishes bureaucratic management from entrepreneurial management.
1949Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. 3d ed. rev. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1966. As the title indicates, Mises took up the whole of the science of economics and explained it as a subset of the more general science of human action, which he termed “praxeology.” The book is rich in its criticism of alternative schools of economic thought and philosophies of science that deny the unique and subjective character of the social sciences. The book is an expanded version of a German work: Nationalökonomie: Theorie des Handelns und Wirtschaftens. Geneva: Editions Union, 1940. Here Mises first argued the case for the praxeological character of the science. The second revised edition published by Yale University Press (1963) is marred by many serious typographical errors.
1952Planning for Freedom, and Other Essays and Addresses. South Holland, III.: Libertarian Press, 1952. This is a collection of a dozen of Mises' most polemical writings, published in such libertarian publications as The Freeman and Plain Talk. All but one of the essays were written between 1945 and 1952. There is a more recent edition of this book by the same publisher in which Mises added an essay he had written in 1958. This edition appeared in 1962.
1956The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand, 1956. In this brief essay Mises analyzed the reasons why intellectuals find the capitalist system unacceptable. His search for the psychological roots of their criticism is touched on by Baumgarth in his paper “Ludwig von Mises and the Justification of the Liberal Order.” Most of Mises' 1956 essay was reprinted in U.S. News and World Report, 19 October 1956.
1957Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957, In this book Mises attacked the logical basis for believing that there are laws of social history analogous to the laws of the natural world. Mises also sketched his own theory of historical evolution, which is value free because it views historical phenomena as the outcome of purposive actions undertaken by individuals. A later edition was published by Arlington House in 1969.
1962The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand, 1962. Here Mises argued that economic phenomena cannot be “explained” unless they are analyzed in terms of the choices and plans of acting individuals. This is the strongest case ever made for “methodological individualism” in economics.
1969The Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1969. This is Mises' last published writing. It is a short essay recalling the struggle of the theoretical economists to gain acceptance of their point of view in the German universities, where the “historical school” of economists held a dominant and underserved position of academic (and therefore political) power.