The centenary of the First World War is drawing to a close, but if there is any justice in the world, the conflict will live in infamy for many centuries to come. Few events have captured as perfectly the death of peace and liberty and the triumph of militarism and statism as the Great War. It not only sent millions to the slaughter and
Valiant Hearts is the rare game that combines engaging gameplay with a compelling narrative and a strongly anti-war message. I highly encourage readers to give it a try, even if you’re not usually interested in gaming. It’s available for all the major platforms, some of which are now offering the first chapter free, so if you want, you can try it
Hope is in short supply these days, while despair and hate are enjoying an enormous surplus. To give an example, there are currently two types of stories that fill my news feed. The first are about politics and the perpetual horrors it unleashes on the world: there’s a new scandal every day, and war, protectionism, and nationalism are on the rise,
The First World War carries a special significance in the history of Austrian economics. It not only symbolized the triumph of militarism and nationalism over the all-too-brief flourishing of liberalism, but also sowed the seeds of fascism, socialism, and the Second World War that ultimately forced the emigration of the Austrians from their native
The period July to November this year marks the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele. In a war already overflowing with misery, Passchendaele remains a byword for unspeakable suffering; it was one of the most appalling campaigns of the First World War, claiming almost half a million casualties and inflicting lifelong physical and psychological
The war on cash is now a global phenomenon : under the pretext of tracing criminal activity, governments everywhere are cracking down on commerce that isn’t monitored or controlled. However, the results of this war reveal its true purpose: tracking citizens and their taxable income . The war on cash is actually a war on commerce, or rather, on any
Austrians never tire of emphasizing Mises’ point that the entrepreneur is the driving force of the economy. But surprisingly, even though we write a lot about the theory and current practice of entrepreneurship, relatively little work has been done to apply the Austrian approach to economic history. For this reason, entrepreneurship scholars
Just over a century ago, in August 1914, the major European nations plunged their peoples into one of the most disastrous conflicts in history. The First World War claimed at least seventeen million lives, destroyed the social and economic fabric of Western Europe, and played a vital role in the expansion of state power around the world. It is
China’s rise to the status of global economic power has invited enormous interest in its cultural and political heritage. Historians tend to be fascinated by China’s erratic economic progress and rich history of innovation, each of which have, at different times, both outpaced and lagged behind developments in Western Europe. In particular, many
Donald Trump’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan highlights once again the disastrous, persistent consequences of militarism and imperialism. However, rather than repeat the usual litany of horrors that are sure to result, I will instead recall a discussion of war by Trump’s literary opposite, William Shakespeare. Shakespeare can be
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.