Epistemological Problems of Economics, Translated by George Reisman. Edited and with a foreword by Bettina Bien Greaves (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2013).

First published in German in 1933 and in English in 1960, Epistemological Problems of Economics presents Ludwig von Mises’s views on the logical and epistemological features of social interpretation as well as his argument that the Austrian theory of value is the core element of a general theory of human behavior that transcends traditional limitations of economic science. This volume is unique among Mises’s works in that it contains a collection of essays in which he contested the theories of intellectuals he respected such as Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, and Max Weber. Mises describes how value theory applies to human action at all times and places as opposed to economic theory, which applies only to a human action guided by economic calculation.

Liberty Matters: George H. Smith and “The System of Liberty” (September, 2013) (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2013).

This online discussion is part of the series “Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Matters pertaining to Liberty.” Jason Brennan, David Gordon, and Ralph Raico discuss with George Smith his new book The System of Liberty: Themes in the History of Classical Liberalism (CUP 2013). Smith describes how he came to write the book, the works of the history of political thought which inspired him, and the methodology he uses in approaching the history of ideas. He demonstrates his approach with a brief discussion of one of the key ideas he has identified in the history of classical liberal thought, namely, the idea of “inalienable rights.”

Liberty Matters: Arthur Seldon and the IEA (November, 2013) (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2013).

This online discussion is part of the series “Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Matters pertaining to Liberty.” John Blundell, who headed the IEA between 1993 and 2009, discusses the contribution of Arthur Seldon ((1916-2005) to the success of the London based Institute of Economic Affairs in spreading free market ideas in Britain. He attributes much of its success to Seldon’s rigorous editing of material which turned technical economic language into jargon free prose which was readable by any educated person. In addition, Seldon’s vision was to secure the IEA a place midway between academia and the production of actual government policies. Responding to Blundell are Stephen Davies, Peter Boettke, and Nigel Ashford.

The Best of the OLL No. 59: Louis Wolowski and Émile Levasseur,“Property II” (1864) (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2013).

The Best of the OLL No. 58: Léon Faucher,“Property I” (1852) (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2013).

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This essay was written some 10 years after that of Léon Faucher when some of the heat felt in 1852 towards the failed socialist experiments of 1848 had dissipated. Wolowski and Levasseur begin their essay quite differently with an almost poetical defence of private property and its individual and social benefits.

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This article was written when the memory of the socialist experiments of the 1848 Revolution were still fresh in the minds of the political economists. Faucher castigates the economists for taking the right of property for granted and for assuming it as a given. So he provides a vigorous defence of the right of private property in order to counter the socialists’ critique.