Nation, State, and Economy: Contributions to the Politics and History of Our Time

by Ludwig von Mises, Bettina Bien Greaves (Editor)

Overview

Essential to Mises’s concept of a classical liberal economy is the absence of interference by the state. In World War I, Germany and its allies were overpowered by the Allied Powers in population, economic production, and military might, and its defeat was inevitable.

Mises believed that Germany should not seek revenge for the peace of Versailles; rather it should adopt liberal ideas and a free-market economy by expanding the international division of labor, which would help all parties. “For us and for humanity,” Mises wrote, “there is only one salvation: return to rationalistic liberalism.”

Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) was the leading spokesman of the Austrian School of economics throughout most of the twentieth century.

Bettina Bien Greaves is a former resident scholar and trustee of the Foundation for Economic Education and was a senior staff member at FEE from 1951 to 1999.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865976412
Publisher:	Liberty Fund, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/21/2006
Series:	Liberty Fund Library of the Works of Ludwig von Mises
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Preface ix
Translator’s Introduction xi
Introduction 1

Nation and State
1 Nation and Nationality
1. The Nation as a Speech Community 7
2. Dialect and Standard Language 17
3. National Changes 22
2 The Nationality Principle in Politics
1. Liberal or Pacifistic Nationalism 25
2. Militant or Imperialistic Nationalism
A. The Nationality Question in Territories with Mixed
Populations 32
B. The Migration Problem and Nationalism 46
C. The Roots of Imperialism 64
D. Pacifism 70
3. On the History of German Democracy
A. Prussia 80
B. Austria 88

War and the Economy
1. The Economic Position of the Central
Powers in the War 110
2. War Socialism 117
3. Autarky and Stockpiling 121
4. The Economy’s War Costs and the Inflation 125
5. Covering the State’s War Costs 136
6. War Socialism and True Socialism 142

Socialism and Imperialism
1. Socialism and Its Opponents 147
2. Socialism and Utopia 152
3. Centralist and Syndicalist Socialism 162
4. Socialist Imperialism 169

Concluding Observations 176
Index 185