Comments (15)

• Gu Si Fang

  Merci Gérard!

  Published: December 24, 2008 8:13 AM

• Johnny Kramer

  The project is a great idea, but I have two major quibbles just after reading the first page:

  First, two glaring errors on the first page don't bode well for the rest of the text: Murray Rothbard died in 1995, not 1994; and, while I didn't stop to look it up, I'm pretty sure that Carl Menger didn't die 19 years before he was born.

  Second, the author immediately starts throwing around specialized terms without defining them, evidently on the assumption that a person who finds the unabridged work too daunting would already know what they mean.

  But again, this project is a great idea, and this looks like a good start.

  Published: December 24, 2008 9:20 AM

• Ryan

  I think abridging Mises' magnum opus should be a crime. The book is meant to be a comprehensive treatment of economics. If anything could be left out Mises would have done so himself. Leave the less daunting and more accessible treatments of the subject to other works, rather than pick and choose the relative importance of specific passages within Human Action.

  If you know someone looking for a less difficult way to parse through Mises' Human Action book I suggest handing them Dr. Murphy's study guide, instead of a filtered version of Mises' great work.

  
  

  Published: December 24, 2008 10:33 AM

• Justin

  I also think abridging is probably a bad idea. Probably better to put together a study guide listing the most significant sections to read throughly and then others to read if you have time or are interested in other minor topics. It might also be good to provide brief 1 page summaries of each section, that will obviously not be a substitute for the text, but to give the reader a general idea about what topics are discussed in those sections.

  Published: December 24, 2008 11:06 AM

• Geoffrey S.

  Some things should simply not be tampered with.

  What did Dr. Murphy say? "Once you realize that Mises has a definite plan for the book — it is certainly not a Joycean stream-of-consciousness riff — then its 881 pages are not as daunting."

  Human action is systematic.

  Margit von Mises said: "I shall never forget the concentration with which my husband worked, how carefully he chose every single word and fought with the editor about the slightest editorial change. He never gave in."

  I remember the introduction to the scholar's edition explaining how much trouble Mises had with the second edition. It was botched. The scholar's edition was produced (I assume) because "...the original edition represents the fullest synthesis of Mses's thought on method, theory, and policy..."

  If you can't read Human Action with the aid the dictionary, the study guide, and Mises Made Easier then you are simply not ready for the material. This is a work that should be read from start to finish, not in some abridged version.

  There are easier books to read if you want to learn economics. One Lesson and Man, Economy, and State come to mind.

  Published: December 24, 2008 11:33 AM

• Patrick

  Jeffrey: you spelled the guy's name wrong. It's Drean (actually Dréan). Not Dean!

  Published: December 24, 2008 2:17 PM

• Gérard Dréan

  Thanks for the comments.

  I apologize for the typos. I will correct them in a forthcoming revision. Please continue to report any mistakes you find.

  I understand the critics, but please keep in mind that this addresses a different audience and tries to serve a different purpose than for instance Dr Murphy's guide. Obviously that audience does not include the readers of mises.org.

  The French version has been published in book form in this country and I am sure that there are now a number of people who have been exposed to Mises' thought who otherwise would not have read one single line of his works (including a few university economics professors...). I do believe that any and all efforts to spread Mises' words are worth it.

  Published: December 25, 2008 2:31 AM

• RWW

  I have mixed feelings. Having no formal training whatsoever in economics, and having read Human Action myself, I find it hard to believe that any fully functional human being would find it daunting. On the other hand, such people do seem to be out there, so for them I suppose an abridgment is better than nothing.

  Published: December 25, 2008 10:03 PM

• Sylvain

  As a French myself, I have bought the french version of this abridged Human Action, for 2 reasons: I don't think I would have had the courage to dive into a 900+ pages book, and the french translation of the full version was anyway difficult to find. So thanks Gérard Dréan for this abridged translation. Now that I have read it, I am tempted to dig further into the full version.

  Published: December 26, 2008 5:05 AM

• Geir

  The study guide to Human Action (http://mises.org/daily/3262) is probably a much better "abridged" version of the book than this one, or at least a more techincally accurate "shortening" of the great book.

  Published: December 26, 2008 1:04 PM

• Gérard Dréan

  @Geir
  can you explain why ?

  Published: December 26, 2008 2:27 PM

• Gérard Dréan

  @Geir
  can you explain why ?

  Published: December 26, 2008 2:27 PM

• Gérard Dréan

  @Geir
  can you explain why ?

  Published: December 26, 2008 3:14 PM

• Gérard Dréan

  sorry for repeated post. Just a typing mistake!

  Published: December 26, 2008 3:17 PM

• Yandros

  I have not finished reading the unabridged version of Human Action yet, but there is nothing so far that I have come across that I would feel comfortable cutting. The analysis is so interdependent and so well reasoned that re-editting it could lead to a misinterpretation by the reader.

  That is not to say that an abridged version would not be a useful tool in attracting new audiences, just that any such version should convey the same ideas in the same fashion as the original, with careful adherence to mises' own philosophy.

  Published: December 27, 2008 9:26 AM