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Free­dom & Per­sonal Triumph

Free­dom & Per­sonal Triumph

Polit­i­cally, emo­tion­ally, I’ve always been a Lib­er­tar­ian. I fell in love with its Roman­tic Polit­i­cal & Eco­nomic Ideals, the Promises of Peace and Pros­per­ity.

Lud­wig von Mises was one of the great defend­ers of polit­i­cal and eco­nomic free­dom. He was one of the most notable clas­si­cal lib­eral econ­o­mists and social philoso­phers of the 20th Cen­tury and author of one of that century’s sem­i­nal text on polit­i­cal and eco­nomic phi­los­o­phy, Human Action: A Trea­tise on Eco­nom­ics. His think­ing was elab­o­rated on by sub­se­quent Aus­trian econ­o­mists such as Nobel lau­re­ate Friedrich Hayek.

Now comes a very per­sonal account of this man’s life in his auto­bi­og­ra­phy: Mem­oirs, Lud­wig von Mises:

“HOW ONE CARRIES ON in the face of unavoid­able cat­a­stro­phe is a mat­ter of tem­pera­ment,” wrote Lud­wig von Mises in his pri­vate mem­oirs of his life in Europe.

It was true in his time and it is true in ours. This new trans­la­tion and edi­tion of Mises’s mov­ing account of his life, pub­lished by the Mises Insti­tute, pro­vides not only a deeply fas­ci­nat­ing per­sonal his­tory; it also func­tions as a moral and spir­i­tual guide for any lover of lib­erty dur­ing times of despotism.

He was 59 years old, and a polit­i­cal exile, first from Vienna (flee­ing the Nazi takeover) and then from Geneva. He had been camped out in Switzer­land for six years, teach­ing and writ­ing the mas­ter­piece that would later become Human Action. But he had been warned that some peo­ple wanted him turned in. He had to find a new home. Leav­ing Geneva, he and his wife Mar­git drove across France, just in front of the advanc­ing Ger­man army. They barely made it out.

There was no pro­fes­sor­ship wait­ing for him in the United States. He had lost every­thing. His library had been burned. His papers were miss­ing. He had no money. He would have to start over, writ­ing and speak­ing in a new language.

Despite being dri­ven from his home, see­ing his coun­try taken over by a for­eign dic­ta­tor, hav­ing his books burned and his papers stolen, and finally pushed out of the sanc­tu­ary he had for six years, he never lost deter­mi­na­tion and never doubted the truth of lib­erty. (from the Mises Insti­tute).

Mises’s life is an exam­ple, a model, and an ideal about how one should never give up on one’s hopes, ambi­tions, and dreams.

Advanc­ing Eco­nomic Lib­erty & Free­dom of Speech
~ Insti­tute For Jus­tice.

Advanc­ing Free Minds & Free Mar­kets
~ Reason.com.

Advanc­ing Lib­erty, Free Mar­kets & Peace
~ Cato.org.

The Bill of Rights is one of the most bril­liant and beau­ti­ful doc­u­ments ever writ­ten. It is based on the idea that all humans are capa­ble of extra­or­di­nary acts. I believe this to be true.
~ David P. Baugh