The History of Economic Thought: From Marx to Hayek

Murray N. Rothbard

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Murray Rothbard died before he could write the third volume of his famous History of Economic Thought, which would cover the birth and development of the Austrian School, through the Keynesian Revolution and Chicago School. With this six-lecture course, however, the History of Economic Thought is complete. Download the complete audio of this event (ZIP) here.

13/01/2006

1. Ideology and Theories of History

History is not an inevitable march upward, as concluded in the 1830s. That determinist view put the stamp of approval on everything past and present. It permeates economic history. It ignores the great moral choices. History is a race between state power and social power.
13/01/2006

2. The Emergence of Communism

The roots of Marxism were in messianic communism. Marx’s devotion to communism was his crucial point. Violent, worldwide revolution, in Marx’s version made by the oppressed proletariat, would be the instrument of the advent of his millennium, communism.
13/01/2006

3. The Pre-Austrians

Richard Cantillon was quite Misesian before Mises. He wrote of utility theory and the entrepreneur’s uncertainty in the 1970s. Cantillon was a great money practitioner. He became a bank and banker to the Jacobite Stuart line and to John Law who launched paper money inflation.
13/01/2006

4. Menger and Böhm-Bawerk

Carl Menger, 1840-1921, founded Austrian economics. Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk was the most important student. Weiser was his brother-in-law, but was fairly pre-Keynesian. Mises was the great successor to Bohn-Bawerk.
13/01/2006

5. Mises and Austrian Economics

The essence of Austrian economics is based on the analysis of individual action. In other words, it is about individuals doing things, having purposes and goals and pursuing them. Other schools of economics deal with aggregates, groups, classes, wholes of one sort or another, without focusing on the individual first and building up from there.
13/01/2006

6. Hayek and His Lamentable Contemporaries

The Nobel award to F.A. Hayek in 1974 went directly against the tradition of that prize to go only to mathematical forecasters, left-liberals, and government central planners. Not only was Hayek’s work pioneering, but it is also the only correct analysis of business cycles past, present and future since they began in the mid-18th century.

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One of the Greatest Teachers of All Time

15/10/2019

n8knauer

Murray Rothbard is celebrated as a libertarian giant and Anarcho-Capitalist, but it is here as a lecturer that I think he shines brightest. His humor and brilliance are so winsome and irresistible that you may find yourself listening to this series again and again. Murray was a transparent communicator of seemingly boundless knowledge. I know he’s gone from this world but I hope to meet him one day.
A piece of history

01/03/2012

r_sad

Audio quality not awful, but not so great either. Interestingly presented by an eminent quasi-contemporary economist who's no longer with us. Worth a listen.
Order?

07/02/2013

nicolasibarra84

It is quite easy to figure out the order, yet, for the sake of extreme usefulness of these lectures, there should be an indicated order to the lectures (part 1, part 2, part 3, etc). Audio quality is not great but content is pretty good!

Murray Rothbard died before he could write the third volume of his famous History of Economic Thought, which would cover the birth and development of the Austrian School, through the Keynesian Revolution and Chicago School. With this six-lecture course, however, the History of Economic Thought is complete. Download the complete audio of this event (ZIP) here.