An Austrian perspective on the history of economic thought

What Hacker News says

1. kriroMay 2016
   Very interesting talk. I'd love for him to write a history of capitalism type book. "The History of Innovation and Globalization". Start it off with the x-axis=globalization and y-axis=innovation model and go from say 18th century to now. I always enjoy history of economics books. I like the mainstream books but really enjoyed the perspective and research that went into "An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought". I am not aware of any good history type books from a more pragmatic business oriented point of view. Thiel has some interesting insights and perspectives.

   Unfortunately that book probably wouldn't be a good use of his time but come on Peter, I know you want to write it :)

   Show morethread
2. brcDec 2015
   Well, that depends if you want to reinforce existing beliefs or challenge them with new ones.

   After much reading from Smith to Marx to Keynes, it's my personal beliefs that the classical economists had it right and much of the 20th century thinking was wrong. To my mind, the experiences of the 20th century pretty much lay out that case, particularly with the twin a/b test of East/west Germany.

   If you want a complete history of economic thought according to he Austrian school, then 'An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought' gives a thorough background from Ancient times to now on the evolution of economic thought and how people came up with the answers to puzzles like why is water essentially valueless as compared to gold when one is life and death and the other essentially useless. Going back deep into the original philosophers and coming forward helps to understand why thinking is the way it is.

   The other book I recommend for people is 'The road to serfdom' by F.A. Hayek. This gives a thorough and as-yet unanswered critique as to why socialism in all its forms fails, and why it is an inherently unstable system that always leads to dictatorships and loss of wealth (hint: feature not bug) But these speak to my own beliefs which are decidedly no longer mainstream. Like many I studied this in undergraduate and masters courses but the explanations never really settled with me so I kept on reading. If you want to understand what the mainstream economic thinking is, just pick up a Krugmsn article and keep reading because most mainstream publications are wedded to the idea that governments can plan and manipulate economies into prosperity.

   Show morethread
3. kriroJul 2015
   It's applied Austrian Economics (what they call history as opposed to theory). It's a pretty good read even if you think Austrians are crackpot-crazy. The train of thought is pretty logically structured. I'm not really aware of a balanced view on the topic so it's a decent idea to start just reading the different views in extreme.

   I'd also recommend Friedman's "A Monetary History of the United States" (with a part about the Great Depression) for a Monetarist POV.

   "The Great Crash, 1929" by Galbraith provides yet another (institutionalist/Post-Keynesian) POV.

   Rothbard was a pretty good scholar even if you completely disagree with him. His "An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought" is a pretty good and well researched set of books.

   Show morethread
4. jswinghammerDec 2011
   For me they were:

   "An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought" by Murray Rothbard

   This was great because of the history lesson packed into a book that's mostly about economics. I didn't realize how libertarian the economic thought of the east was until I read this book. I also appreciated the focus on economics before Adam Smith since I knew only about Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas's contributions prior to reading the book. Rothbard's take-down of Marx was both thorough and satisfying.

   "City of God" by Augustine of Hippo

   The history lesson here was helpful as was the perspective on how the church should view the state though I should have invested more money in a better version for Kindle. The version I had was filled with grammatical mistakes due to the poor translation to the Kindle format.

   Show morethread