History of the Austrian School of Economics

Rothbard’s method: no abstract “forces,” only individual actors.

The familiar story pits western farmer-debtors against eastern merchant-creditors. Rothbard's evidence says the story is wrong.

Murray Rothbard entered Columbia University at age 16 and by the time he was graduated from that institution with a Ph.D. in economics, he already had done path-breaking work in economics. His legacy has only grown since then.

Bretton Woods was a dollar standard wearing the prestige of gold.

In 1962, despite professional and institutional obstacles, Man, Economy, and State was finally published. With it, Rothbard greatly advanced the Austrian tradition and firmly positioned himself as Mises’s heir.

With advances in the Austrian theory of the business cycle, Rothbard finally completed the monumental task of deducing the entire corpus of economic theory using the praxeological method.

Murray Rothbard’s project drastically changed in mid-1953. Unable to rely on Mises’s sparse treatment of production theory, Rothbard adopted his old Marshallian approach, focusing on an individual firm that faced fixed prices and restricted investment decisions.

Murray Rothbard’s economic perspective changed significantly in 1949 when he met Ludwig von Mises and read his magnum opus, Human Action. 

Murray Rothbard started his career with a foundational training in neoclassical economics. 

Murray N . Rothbard: The Making of an Austrian Economist is written for everyone interested in Rothbard’s economic theory and Austrian economics in general.