George Bernard Shaw-G. K. Chesterton

This is the last book that von Mises wrote. It reflects a lifetime of learning and writing about economics as the leader of the Austrian School of economics. The book summarizes the spectacular success of economic freedom in building prosperity, and the intellectual error most civilizations fall into that hampers both their prosperity and their liberty. He demonstrates how socialism must fail because it cannot solve the problem of economic calculation, because short of totalitarian control, human behavior is always in flux and can't be studied the same way we study the physical "laws of nature". Yet there is an overall predictable regularity in human behavior as individuals go about choosing unpredictable ways to provide for their own pleasure, safety and security, which if given its head, tends towards creative problem solving and ever-increasing economic prosperity. (Summary by Michele Fry)