Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War

This is not von Mises’ best work. It dates from 1944 and uses a sort of history of Germany to remake the points against totalitarianism and socialism the he made more clearly in other works. The view taken in the work is that classical liberalism (free markets, democracy, and capitalism) is a freer and more productive environment than socialism, communism, and government planning; that restrictions on trade should be avoided along with government inflation through paper only monies.

The historical value of the work was that it was written and published in English before most of his other and better work was translated. Unless you desire a full read of all his works, you’d be advised to skip this one and go directly to show more ‘Socialism’, ‘Interventionism’, ‘The Free-Market and its Enemies’, and his masterwork ‘Human Action’. show less

Este libro ofrece una lúcida y certera interpretación de algunos de los fenómenos que más profundamente han marcado la historia contemporánea. Los análisis históricos y sociológicos de la decadencia del liberalismo alemán, de la afirmación del pangermanismo y la parte que en ella tuvieron los intelectuales, de las raíces del colectivismo y del nacionalsocialismo, y, de un modo particular, de las complicidades que el partido socialdemócrata y otros partidos tuvieron en el afianzamiento del nazismo como fenómeno histórico, nos revelan una maestría insuperable que justifica la consideración de Ludwig von Mises, no sólo como uno de los mayores pensadores de nuestro tiempo, sino también uno de los mayores pensadores sobre show more nuestro tiempo. show less