Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Introducing Böhm-Bawerk!

Eugen Ritter von Böhm-Bawerk (February 12, 1851 in Brno – August 27, 1914 in Vienna, or Kramsach) was an Austrian economist who made important contributions to the development of the Austrian School of economics.

While studying to be a lawyer at the University of Vienna, he read Carl Menger's Principles of Economics. Though he never studied under Menger, he quickly became an adherent of his theories. Joseph Schumpeter said that Böhm-Bawerk "was so completely the enthusiastic disciple of Menger that it is hardly necessary to look for other influences." During his time at the Vienna university, he became good friends with Friedrich von Wieser, who later became Boehm-Bawerk's brother-in-law. After Vienna, he studied political economy and social science at the universities of Heidelberg, Leipzig and Jena, under Karl Knies, Wilhelm Roscher und Bruno Hildebrand.

He wrote extensive critiques of Karl Marx's economics in the 1880s and 1890s, and several prominent Marxists—including Rudolf Hilferding—attended his seminar in 1905-06. He returned to teaching in 1904, with a chair at the University of Vienna. He taught many students including Joseph Schumpeter, Ludwig von Mises and Henryk Grossman.

Eugen Böhm-Bawerk’s writings are now available at the Anti-Marxists Internet Archive e-library.  The AMIA highly recommends his book Karl Marx and the Close of His System, acclaimed by Austrian School economists and has yet to be effectively refuted by Marxist “thinkers.”

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