Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis.

VON MISES, Ludwig.

Item Number: 104342

London: Jonathan Cape, 1936.

First edition of this “work on political economy in the tradition of the great moral philosophers, a Montesquieu or Adam Smith, containing both acute knowledge and profound wisdom by von Mises” (F.A. Hayek). Octavo, original cloth. Signed by Ludwig von Mises on the half-title page. Translated by J. Kahane. In near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Rare and desirable signed, we have never seen another example.

Socialism is a masterwork is much more than a refutation of the economics of socialism. It is also a critique of the implicit religious doctrines behind Western socialist thinking, a cultural critique of socialist teaching on sex and marriage, an examination of the implications of radical human inequality, an attack on war, socialism, and refutation of collectivist methodology. Von Mises sets out to refute socialism, and instead yanked out the collectivist mentality from its very roots. This work led dozens of well-known intellectuals, including a young F.A. Hayek, into libertarian political orientation. "This book must rank as the most devastating analysis of socialism yet penned. . . . An economic classic in our time" (Henry Hazlitt).