The Human Action Podcast

Rothbard’s History of Economic Thought from Greeks to Physiocrats

The Human Action Podcast
Jeff Deist Patrick Newman

Was Adam Smith the founder of modern economics? Not so, says Murray Rothbard in his staggering two-volume An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought. Dr. Patrick Newman joins the show for a look at Rothbard’s treatment of economics before Smith—from the Ancient Greeks all the way to the Scottish Enlightenment—and his take no prisoners revisionist approach. Jeff Deist and Dr. Newman cover Aristotle and Plato, Aquinas, Protestants and Catholics in the Middle Ages, Spanish Scholastics, Mercantilists, French Physiocrats and Turgot, and the criminally underappreciated Richard Cantillon. If you’re a fan of economics and non-bowdlerized history, don’t miss this!

Additional Resources

Read Rothbard’s important work: Mises.org/APHET

Find out more about Dr. Newman’s new book: Mises.org/CronyismBook