Having been introduced to (Chicago School) economics through Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics", "Applied Economics" and "Knowledge and Decisions", I decided to now shift a bit my focus to the world of Austrian Economics.
I've read both "An Introduction to Austrian Economics" by Thomas Taylor and "The Austrian School" by Huerta Soto and I want more. I've given a quick glance at Mises' "Human Action" and "Theory of Money and Credit", as well as Rothbard's MES, but they all seem to be a bit over my head, both in the language used and in the contents presented themselves. On the other hand I've tried to look into Murphy's "Lessons for the Young Economist" and fell asleep. I guess its pace is too slow for me atm. To be fair, I guess the same would happen would I had to read Sowell's "Basic Economics" nowadays.
Both "Foundations of the Market Price System" by Milton Shapiro and "Market Theory and Price System" by Israel Kizrner seem not only digestible but to hit a sweet-spot for me, although they do seem to overlap a lot. Which one should I pick?
To be frank I've never heard of either of those works, and while I'll vouch for Kirzner I don't know who Milton Shapiro is. While part of the problem with AE from an educational standpoint is that the works are either overly simple or incredibly advanced. A decent mid-level work is America's Great Depression. I'd also have another look at MES, the work starts off as a very good introduction and then it gets increasingly more advanced and irrelevant unless you're already familiar with Austrianism and the debates within Austrian circles.
I've read Shapiro's book. It's very nice I think as an introduction to economics, and also contains some insightful discussions on a few topics. Kirzner's Market Theory is not oneI've read yet, but from a glance it seems to be a more neoclassically oriented book and this seems to have been quite a sore point in Rithbard's review of the work too.
I'd say go for Shapiro, but I have to say there's still no complete Austrian price theory book. Even Rothbard's exposition of Bohm Bawerk's theory in MES is quite incomplete for instance. Perhaps this is something I'll try to correct myself rather than keep moaning about it. ;)
"When the King is far the people are happy." Chinese proverb
For Alexander Zinoviev and the free market there is a shared delight:
"Where there are problems there is life."
Kirzner's book is meant as a graduate level textbook for a price theory class.
jorge.d.f.branco:I've read both "An Introduction to Austrian Economics" by Thomas Taylor and "The Austrian School" by Huerta Soto and I want more. I've given a quick glance at Mises' "Human Action" and "Theory of Money and Credit", as well as Rothbard's MES, but they all seem to be a bit over my head, both in the language used and in the contents presented themselves. On the other hand I've tried to look into Murphy's "Lessons for the Young Economist" and fell asleep. I guess its pace is too slow for me atm. To be fair, I guess the same would happen would I had to read Sowell's "Basic Economics" nowadays.
Hmm. Have you looked at:
Economics in One Lesson (available for free download)
How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes
Economics for Real People (available for free download)
Meltdown
Those might work for you. They may also be not "advanced" enough, but they're pretty readable. Meltdown is especially an attention holder.
If you want something more advanced, Common Sense Economics is said to be a good intermediary step between the basics and the advanced tomes.
Gary North listed his 10 Steps to Understand Austrian Economic Theory (in order of difficulty) here. You'll notice his Mises on Money is listed there, and it's a good precursor to Theory of Money and Credit.
You can check out plenty more reading lists here, and of course the Ultimate Beginner Meta-thread offers a pretty sizable collection of resources.
Gary North listed his 10 Steps to Understand Austrian Economic Theory
I've heard HA suggested before MES. Which should I go with?
Tom Woods has suggested MES first. Mises assumes a lot more knowledge on the part of the reader, whereas Rothbard elaborates every detail.
I'd probably do MES over HA as well.
If I had a cake and ate it, it can be concluded that I do not have it anymore. HHH
Some people tend to have an easier time with Rothbard largely because of his more easily digested prose. (I even remember someone trying to make the case that it could be considered a good beginner book.) But it's also said that since he built upon Mises' work and in some areas advanced it further, it's good to have some familiarity with where he's coming from before tackling his treatise...but then again, the same can be said of Mises too, as he makes plenty of assumptions as to the relatively advanced knowledge of the reader.
I've actually heard it both ways...that MES will help you digest HA better, and vice versa. I'm not really sure it matters, if you're at a level advanced enough to be venturing into those in the first place. I tend to prefer reading in chronological order as much as possible, but of course this doesn't mean I would read Theory of Money and Credit, then Economics in One Lesson, then Human Action, then Common Sense Economics.
You might actually try out the first few chapters of both (along with the study guides) and see which you like better. David Gordon suggests you'll "miss out on a great deal" if you don't go through HA in order, and I could see where he's coming from on that, so you might want to see if you feel like MES would be easier first. Because obviously at the end of the day, what's best is what gets you to read the book, so if you prefer to tackle something else first, go ahead and do that.