Mises Review, now online, is a quarterly review of the literature in economics, politics, philosophy, and law. Edited by David Gordon.
“War and Murder“ and “Mr. Truman’s Degree,“ by G.E.M. Anscombe
The events of September 11, and the response to them by the Bush administration, make Elizabeth Anscombe’s classic essays newly pertinent. Her essays present the most influential account
Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics, by George Reisman
Professor Reisman centers his enormous book about a key insight: It is capitalists who run the capitalist system. (He has been greatly influenced by Ayn Rand,
Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, by Rick Perlstein
Barry Goldwater's campaign for the presidency in 1964 decisively influenced American conservatism. At last, a candidate who dared to challenge the prevailing liberal consensus!
The New Dealers’ War: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the War Within World War II, by Thomas Fleming
Thomas Fleming has done a great deal to strengthen a standard revisionist contention about America's entry into World War II. Historians opposed to Roosevelt's
A God Before Thee, by Walter Berns
Professor Berns has written a book capable of great harm. Not content with the world's major faiths, he proposes to establish a "civil religion" in the guise of patriotism.
Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy, by Thomas Sowell
I am jealous of Thomas Sowell. He has a genius for the striking fact and the apt analogy. These enable him to present his points in a way that readers will not soon forget.
The Long Truce: How Toleration Made the World Safe for Power and Profit, by A.J. Conyers
A supporter of the absolute state might defend his cause with many slogans, but freedom of religious opinion, one would think, could hardly find a place among them.
A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War, by Harry V. Jaffa
Professor Jaffa has set himself a difficult task. He presents Abraham Lincoln as a champion of freedom for all. Not for Honest Abe the virulent racist sentiments of his contemporaries about blacks.
The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers, by Mark Skousen
Mark Skousen is not easy to satisfy. "In 1980," he informs us, " I asked Murray Rothbard to write an alternative to Robert Heilbroner' s The Wordly Philosophers."
Time and Money: The Macroeconomics of Capital Structure, by Roger W. Garrison
Roger Garrison's long-awaited book compares and contrasts Austrian business cycle theory with a number of other approaches, including Monetarism, New Classicism, and New Keynesianism;
Ethics as Social Science: The Moral Philosophy of Social Cooperation, by Leland Yeager
To those who know Leland Yeager's work, it will come as no surprise that he has given us an illuminating book, informed by careful thought and wide-ranging scholarship.
Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939-1941, by Justus D. Doenecke
Justus Doenecke's careful study of the opponents of American entry into World War II makes evident that the noninterventionists had a clearer grasp of essential truths about American foreign policy than their eager-for-war opponents.
Capital is Disequilibrium: The Role of Capital in a Changing World, by Peter Lewin
Peter Lewin here undertakes a difficult task and carries off his mission with notable success. He studied with the late Ludwig Lachmann, by whose thought he has been greatly influenced.
The Driving Force of the Market: Essays in Austrian Economics, by Israel M. Kirzner
In a masterly essay included in The Driving Force of the Market, Israel Kirzner asks whether Hayek can best be seen as a hedgehog, who sees one big thing, or as a fox, who sees many things.
Social Welfare and Individual Responsiblity, by David Schmidtz and Robert E. Goodin
Most readers of this journal will, I suspect, find the arguments of David Schmidtz much more congenial than those of his coauthor in this discussion of welfare.
The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice, by Paul Craig Roberts and Lawrence M. Stratton
Years ago, Paul Samuelson raised an influential objection to Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. Hayek argued that collectivist movements displayed a disturbing feature.
Two Faces of Liberalism, by John Gray
Sometimes a single sentence in a book tells you that something is radically wrong. In the present work we find the damning statement early: "Aeschylus, Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett are supremely great dramatists;
While America Sleeps: Self-Delusion, Military Weakness, and the Threat to Peace Today, by Donald Kagan and Frederick W. Kagan
While America Sleeps might better have been called While the Kagans Sleep. The book is divided into two parts: one on British foreign policy in the 1920s and 1930s and another on American foreign policy in the 1990s.
Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Factor Endowments, Culture, and Politics on Long-Run Economic Performance, by Deepak Lal
Deepak Lal, a distinguished development economist, might have entitled this book The Rise and Future Decline of the West. In his view, the nations of Western Europe first discovered the secret of economic prosperity.
Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality by Ronald Dworkin
Ronald Dworkin gets off to a poor start, but things are not so bad as they first appear. He tells us that equality is the sovereign political virtue. What could be more anti-libertarian?