Omnipotent Government

Published in 1944, during World War II, Omnipotent Government was Mises's first book written and published after he arrived in the United States. In this volume Mises provides in economic terms an explanation of the international conflicts that caused both world wars. Although written more than half a century ago, Mises's main theme still stands: government interference in the economy leads to conflicts and wars. According to Mises, the last and best hope for peace is liberalism -- the philosophy of liberty, free markets, limited government, and democracy.

Foreword to the Liberty Fund Edition; Preface; Introduction; The Collapse of German Liberalism; German Liberalism; The Ancien Reacute;gime and Liberalism; The Weakness of German Liberalism; The Prussian Army; The Constitutional Conflict in Prussia; The Little German Program; The Lassalle Episode; The Triumph of Militarism; The Prussian Army in the New German Empire; German Militarism; The Liberals and Militarism; The Current Explanation of the Success of Militarism; Nationalism; Etatism; The New Mentality; The State; The Political and Social Doctrines of Liberalism; Socialism; Socialism in Russia and in Germany; Interventionism; Etatism and Protectionism; Economic Nationalism and Domestic Monopoly Prices; Autarky; German Protectionism; Etatism and Nationalism; The Principle of Nationality; The Linguistic Group; Liberalism and the Principle of Nationality; Aggressive Nationalism; Colonial Imperialism; Foreign Investment and Foreign Loans; Total War; Socialism and War; Refutation of Some Fallacious Explanations; The Shortcomings of Current Explanations; The Alleged Irrationality of Nationalism; The Aristocratic Doctrine; Misapprehended Darwinism; The Role of Chauvinism; The Role of Myths; German Nazism; The Peculiar Characteristics of German Nationalism; The Awakening; The Ascendancy of Pan-Germanism; German Nationalism Within an Etatist World; A Critique of German Nationalism; Nazism and German Philosophy; Polylogism; Pan-Germanism and Nazism; The Social Democrats in Imperial Germany; The Legend; Marxism and the Labor Movement; The German Workers and the German State; The Social Democrats within the German Caste System; he Social Democrats and War; Anti-Semitism and Racism; The Role of Racism; The Struggle against the Jewish Mind; Interventionism and Legal Discrimination against Jews; The Stab in the Back; Anti-Semitism as a Factor in International Politics; The Weimar Republic and Its Collapse; The Weimar Constitution; The Abortive Socialisation; The Armed Parties; The Treaty of Versailles; The Economic Depression; Nazism and German Labour; The Foreign Critics of Nazism; Nazism as a World Problem; The Scope and Limitations of History; The Fallacy of the Concept of National Character; Germany's Rubicon; The Alternative; The Future of Western Civilisation; The Delusions of World Planning; The Term Planning; The Dictatorship Complex; A World Government; Planned Production; Foreign Trade Agreements; Monetary Planning; Planning International Capital Transactions; Peace Schemes; Armament Control; A Critique of Some Other Schemes Proposed; The Union of the Western Democracies; Peace in Eastern Europe; The Problems of Asia; The Role of the League of Nations; Conclusion; Index.