Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War (Liberty Fund Library of the Works of Ludwig von Mises)

This book was very interesting and followed German society and its descent into Nazism from 1880 to around 1945. Great book, should never have been forgotten in history.

Facts are facts. What is said in this book is true and happens all the time.

Product very professionally wrapped and brand new. Arrived on time as promised.Thank you.

Outstanding!

Written during World War II, von Mises examines the nature of governments that lead to totalitarian rule based on control of the economy. His main point of reference is the Nazi party in Germany but also covers the actions of other states such as Italy and Japan. Less directly, his basic thesis that nearly total control of the economy by a government leads to a situation where the government has to try to use its military power to take over other more productive countries that it can then steal from just to feed its owns citizens.Obviously these theories lead to the Soviet Union, Cuba, many African states and others that proved to be unable to even feed their citizens.This book is a reprint of the 1944 edition that is almost uncanny in its prediction of what was going to happen in the following decades.

Ludwin Von Mises wrote Omnipotent Government in 1944 at the last days of WWII. Mises describes the philosophical grounds of the Nazi movement. A book rich in history background and a though provoking plan for the future.In the first part Mises explains the German Liberalism during the middle of the XIX when the ideas of the classical Liberalism were partially adopted in Germany. According to Mises:"At about the middle of the nineteenth century those Germans interested in political issues were united in their adherence to liberalism. Yet the German nation did not succeed in shaking off the yoke of absolutism and in establishing democracy and parliamentary government."Mises explains the history of Germany from the late XVIII to the early XX with a different point of view from the dominant Socialist Historians. Overall he shows how and why a powerful-educated German society fell into Nazism."The questions to be answered are not: Why did the bankers and the rich entrepreneurs and capitalists desert liberalism? Why did the professors, the doctors, and the lawyers not erect barricades? We must rather ask: Why did the German nation return to the Reichstag members who did not abolish absolutism? Why was the army, formed for a great part of men who voted the socialist or the Catholic ticket, unconditionally loyal to its commanders? Why could the antiliberal parties, foremost among them the Social Democrats, collect many millions of votes while the groups which remained faithful to the principles of liberalism lost more and more popular support? Why did the millions of socialist voters who indulged in revolutionary babble acquiesce in the rule of princes and courts?"For Mises the German Liberals were unable to protect the principles and ideas that help them succeed. They saw Socialism and Nazism as temporary setbacks and never recognize the deep roots of Etatism. Soon Etatism armed with a strong military evolved into nationalism."As soon as liberalism reached Germany and Italy the problem of the extent of the state and its boundaries was raised. It solution seemed easy. The nation is the community of all people speaking the same language; the state's frontiers should coincide with the linguistic demarcations.""The principle of nationality is an outcome of the interpretation which people in Central and Eastern Europe, who never fully grasped the meaning of liberal ideas, gave to the principle of self-determination. It is a distortion, not a perfection, of liberal thought."The nationalism originally define as unity of language evolved to unity of race. The idea that Germany was the strongest among European nations contrasted with the defeat after WWI and the unacceptable conditions of the Versailles Treaty. It fueled the legend of "the stab in the back" followed by the total failure of the Weimar Republic setting the conditions to the advent of Nazism. The party sold itself as the enemy of the communist to the liberals and as saver of the poor from the bourgeois. But overall a saver of the German Nationalism, nationalism now defined by race with a common enemy, Jews.Mises' conclusion can be read two ways. Considering the era when The Omnipotent Government was published he recognize the improbability of a liberal world, necessary to discard aggression from other countries, plus the risk of government to close their borders establishing autarkic states and starting aggression against their neighbors to eliminate its dependency."But will all men rightly understand their own interests? What if they do not? This is the weak point in the liberal plea for a free world of peaceful coöperation. The realization of the liberal plan is impossible because—at least for our time—people lack the mental ability to absorb the principles of sound economics. Most men are too dull to follow complicated chains of reasoning. Liberalism failed because the intellectual capacities of the immense majority were insufficient for the task of comprehension."But sixty years later we can read his conclusion as a kind of prophecy of how humanity is condemned to live with the risk of war supporting strong armies as long as the different flavors of etatism are not replaced by liberalism, where goods and people move freely anywhere in the world.Is capitalism an all or nothing global condition for peace? Are global coalitions and governments the only defense to totalitarian neighbors?

really heavy reading, textbook

Reading this book really expanded my knowledge. I got exposed to this field from Henry hanzlit!May this become a trend!

Es dreht sich in diesem Buch viel um die Geschichte Deutschlands und es werden sehr viele interessante Aspekte genannt. Wie immer ein sehr empfehlenswertes Buch von Ludwig von Mises.

I am often wrongly accused of being anti-government, because I believe in limited government. Let me quote from this very book a refutation of that accusation:"If a man says that sulphuric acid does not make a good hand lotion, he is not expressing hostility to sulphuric acid as such; he is simply giving his opinion concerning the limitations of its use."The extent to which this book, first published in 1944, describes the goings-on in the world today is downright eerie. But then again, human nature never changes, and so I expect this book to be as relevant a century from now as it was the best part of a century ago. If you find yourself feeling bewildered and powerless because of what's currently happening worldwide, this is a book you must read. If the quotes below don't convince you of this, then I don't know what will.1. "Every doctrine that has recourse to the police power or to other methods of violence or threat for its protection reveals its inner weakness. If we had no other means to judge the Nazi doctrines, the single fact that they seek shelter behind the Gestapo would be sufficient evidence against them. Doctrines which can stand the trial of logic and reason can do without persecuting skeptics."2. "Where the universities become bodyguards and the scholars are eager to range themselves in a 'scientific front,' the gates are open for the entry of barbarism. It is vain to fight totalitarianism by adopting totalitarian methods. Freedom can only be won by men unconditionally committed to the principles of freedom. The first requisite for a better social order is the return to unrestricted freedom of thought and speech."3. "It is a great comfort to every administration to be able to make its citizens happy by spending. For public opinion will then attribute the resulting boom to its current rulers. The inevitable slump will occur later and burden their successors.... We are destined to spend decades paying for the easy money orgy of a few years."4. "If war becomes unavoidable, a genuinely democratic government is forced to tell the country the truth. It must say: 'We are compelled to fight for our independence. You citizens must carry the burden. You must pay higher taxes and therefore restrict your consumption.' But if the ruling party does not want to imperil its popularity by heavy taxation, it takes recourse to inflation."Do keep in mind, though, that the words "liberal" and "liberalism" as used in this book have absolutely nothing to do with the so-called liberals and liberalism of today. Over the decades, the words have been hijacked and twisted to mean exactly the opposite of their original meaning. Wherever you read "liberal" in this book, substitute "libertarian" or "conservative".

Ein interessantes Buch. Mir war allerdings nicht klar, daß es vor allem um Nazismus geht. Ich hatte eigentlich wirtschaftliche Thesen erwartet, die aber auch vorhanden sind. Trotzdem kann ich das Buch weiterempfehlen.