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Freedom Book of the Month for July, 2002:
Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School
by Gene Callahan, the Ludwig von Mises Institute 2002, trade paper, 339 pp. ISBN: 0-945466-35-8.
Gene Callahan -- or whoever chose the title for this book -- chose well. Economics for Real People is just that, but it's wonderfully, engagingly, comprehensively economics for real people. With coverage that rivals an economics textbook, and an inviting writing style that makes the topics comprehensible to the lay reader, Callahan fulfills the promise of his book's title and then some.
Economics for Real People is divided into four sections, each of which builds upon the preceding ones in presenting a comprehensive introduction to Austrian economics. The fundamental idea is that economics is the science of human action, and that choices -- the behaviors individuals engage in -- are the means by which one can understand what individuals value, and to what degree. Whether addressing basic ideas or complex topics, this guiding idea is never lost, which helps to anchor the entire book for nonexpert readers.
I have read other economics books ... even attempted von Mises' massive tome Human Action. The other books I did complete often left me a bit confused on some topics, or became mired in economic jargon, which hindered my understanding. Human Action -- as far as I've been able to get thus far -- is brilliant, but work to read. Callahan deftly avoids these pitfalls, and in fact makes von Mises more accessible by highlighting appropriate quotations from his works liberally throughout Economics for Real People. Examples are real-world and easy to understand, but not overly simplified. In his concluding chapter on "social justice," Callahan makes a compelling case for separating state and economy. For those who wish to delve deeper into Austrian economics, two appendices and a bibliography make starting the journey easy.
As I read, I found it not only educational, but personally helpful, as its admonition that preferences are always trumped by choices illuminated conflicts between what I claim to value and what my choices reveal I value. Economics for Real People is a terrific book for pro-freedom people who want to understand individual behavior and market processes better, and an invaluable primer for anyone who has yet to be introduced to "the dismal science." Let's hope it helps shift views away from that nickname to one more suitable for the important science of human action.
Order Economics for Real People from Laissez Faire Books, $12.50 plus shipping.More book information for July 2002
edited by Sunni Maravillosa
June 2002: Net Assets by Carl Bussjaeger
May 2002: The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz
April 2002: Toward Liberty: The Idea that is Changing the World edited by David Boaz
March 2002: Liberty for Women edited by Wendy McElroy
February 2002: The State vs. the People by Aaron Zelman and Claire Wolfe
Freedom Book of the Year, 2001: Hope by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith
January 2002: Death by Gun Control by Aaron Zelman and Richard W. Stevens
December 2001: The American Zone by L. Neil Smith
November 2001: Ayn Rand and Business by Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni
October 2001: Junk Science Judo by Steven J. Milloy
September 2001: Jonathan Gullible by Ken Schoolland
August 2001: Hope by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
July 2001: Dissenting Electorate edited by Wendy McElroy and Carl Watner
June 2001: Tethered Citizens by Sheldon Richman
May 2001: Lever Action by L. Neil Smith
April 2001: The Cato Handbook for Congress from the Cato Institute
March 2001: The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley
February 2001: Crypto by Steven Levy
January 2001: Total Freedom by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Freedom Book of the Year 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
December 2000: The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto
November 2000: Escape from Leviathan by J.C. Lester
October 2000: The Art of Political War by David Horowitz
September 2000: An Enemy of the State by Justin Raimondo
August 2000: The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell
July 2000: A Generation Divided by Rebecca Klatch
June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman
May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben
March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand
February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler
January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood
Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz
November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy
September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe
July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant
May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz
April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille
March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary
February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
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