Book Reviews

But Sowell's latest book is a collection of powerful broadsides, originally published as newspaper columns. The language here is blunter, the arguments terse and less courteous, the overall effect more scathing - and very emotionally satisfying. Most of the essays in Compassion versus Guilt are, in effect, popular treatments of the philosophical themes set out in Sowell's pre vious book, A Conflict of Visions. In that work he posited a dichotomy between "constrained" and "unconstrained" visions of man's moral and mental natures and capacities. The con strained vision holds social change as some thing to be approached cautiously because of the intractable limitations of human morality and knowledge. The unconstrained view holds social change as directly manageable, at least by a selfless and enlightened few. In this book, Sowell takes a side-the con strained side. The most frequent target of his barbs are "deep thinkers, " people whose credo has such items as: by eliminating high stan dards we can eliminate failure; people are enti tled to welfare in preference to "menial" work; only political and bureaucratic jobs are noble and valuable; sex education is the solution to OTHER BOOKS 463 the teen pregnancy problem; affirmative action is good despite the opposition of its supposed beneficiaries; and so on. Sowell is at his polem ical best when he shows the contortions his op ponents must perform to sustain these views in the face of their absurd or disastrous implica tions and results.

Thomas Sowell's works provide lovers of lib erty with a vast store of careful logic and illumi nating facts that can help us change minds and even policies. But most of us must make our ar guments for liberty in situations that demand brevity-letters to editors, private conversa tions, local meetings, and the like. These essays show that issues can be dealt with briefly yet trenchantly, with respect for facts and with ex plosive effect on statist arguments. D Mr. Stewart is an advertising copywriter and a freelance writer in Rochester Hills, Michigan. LUDWIG VON MISES: SCHOLAR, CREATOR,HERO by Murray N. Rothbard The Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849· 1988· 87 pp., $8.00 paperback. Also available from The Foundation for Economic Education. Reviewed by Bettina Bien Greaves T he great Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, died in 1973. A generation of young students has come of age since then. These new students know Mises only by name and through his reputation as an advocate of free markets. Although they could not know Mises personally, they are fortunate in having available a growing volume of literature about him and the economic theories he expounded.

Several books have been written about Mises' life-for instance, his own Notes and Recollections (published posthumously in 1978) and his widow's My Years with Ludwig von Mises (1976 and 1984). The Essential von Mises (1973) by Professor Murray N. Roth bard, reprinted in the 4th edition of Mises' Planning for Freedom (1980), gives a brief in troduction to the man and his work. But now 464 THE FREEMAN. NOVEMBER 1988 Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) this new booklet, also by Professor Rothbard, gives an excellent, slightly longer, overview of the high points in Professor Mises' life and of his major contributions to economics. For several years, when Rothbard was working for his doctorate at Columbia Univer sity, he was an active participant in Mises' graduate seminar at New York University. He knew Mises well. And he understands the eco nomics Mises taught as few others do. In this booklet, Rothbard tells of Mises' early life in Austria and of his career as a teacher and as an economic adviser to the Aus trian government. He describes two of Mises' major books published during those years The Theory of Money and Credit (1912) and Socialism (1922). Rothbard tells about Mises' private seminar, attended by such notables as F. A. Hayek, and he discusses Mises' struggles in Vienna against inflationists, socialists, and communists.

When Mises realized that the situation in Austria was hopeless, he left his native country for Switzerland: There he spent several years (1934-1940) teaching and writing. Among other works, he wrote a weighty and important economic treatise, Nationaloekonomie, which was published in 1949. Hitler was then riding high in Europe. Few readers of German were in a position to study the economic theory of free markets at that time, so the sales of Mises' books were disappointing. To escape the catastrophe in Europe, Mises left Switzerland. He arrived in the United States in 1940 with his wife and immediately began to carve out a new career for himself, lecturing and writing in English. In the re maining three decades of his life, he wrote six books, including his magnum opus, Human Action, a complete rewrite in English of his ill fated Nationaloekonomie. He also wrote sev eral monographs and many articles.

In this booklet, Rothbard briefly explains Mises' epistemology":'-the fundamental prin ciples from which Mises reasoned. Rothbard also summarizes Mises' most important contri butions to the theory of money and banking, the causes of the business "cycle," and the reasons why economic calculation is impos sible under socialism. Mises' understanding of the consequences of government intervention made him a pessimist for most of his life. Yet he never gave up. He met every danger, Rothbard. writes, with ,'magnificent courage . . . no matter how des perate the circumstance." Whether he was bat tling inflation, socialism, government interven tion, or Nazism, "Ludwig von Mises carried the fight forward, and deepened and expanded his great contributions to economics and to all the disciplines of human action.',' Rothbard gives the reader a good, if abbre viated, introduction to Ludwig von Mises, his life, his character, and his work. This booklet will interest both the novice and the serious scholar. D Mrs. Greaves is a member of the senior staff of The Foundation for Economic Education.

From 1951 to 1969 she was a regular partici pant in Ludwig von Mises' graduate seminar in economic theory at New York University.