Front Matter

A SHORT HISTORY OF MAN

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A SHORT HISTORY OF MAN

PROGRESS AND DECLINE

AN AUSTRO-LIBERTARIAN RECONSTRUCTION

Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Mises Institute

Mises Institute, founded in 1982, is a teaching and research center for the study of Austrian economics, libertarian and classical liberal political theory, and peaceful international relations. In support of the school of thought represented by Ludwig von Mises, Murray N. Rothbard, Henry Hazlitt, and F.A. Hayek, we publish books and journals, sponsor student and professional conferences, and provide online education. Mises.org is a vast resource of free material for anyone in the world interested in these ideas. For we seek a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order.

For more information, see Mises.org, write us at info@mises.org, or phone us at 1.800.OF.MISES.

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“On the Origin of Private Property and the Family” and “From the Malthusian Trap” first appeared in Hans-Hermann Hoppe, The Great Fiction: Property, Economy, Society, and the Politics of Decline (2012); reprinted with permission of Laissez Books (Baltimore, Maryland).

“From Aristocracy to Monarchy to Democracy” was published as a booklet by the Mises Institute (2014).

Cover design by Chad Parish featuring ancient cooking and storage pots and the historical and ancient beehive houses in Şanlıurfa, Turkey.

Published 2015 by the Mises Institute and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Mises Institute

518 West Magnolia Avenue

Auburn, Alabama 36832

mises.org

ISBN: 978-1-61016-591-4

eISBN: 978-1-61016-640-9

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction: An Austro-Libertarian Reconstruction

1: On the Origin of Private Property and the Family

I. The Setting: History

II. The Problem: Theory

III. The Solution: Theory and History

2: From the Malthusian Trap to the Industrial Revolution: Reflections on Social Evolution

I. Economic Theory

II. Economic History: The Problem

III. History Explained

IV. Implications and Outlook

3: From Aristocracy to Monarchy to Democracy

Index