This little essay offers something spectacular: an intellectual history of Mises's own tradition, with first person accounts of conversations with the greats. And truly, Mises turns out to have written the best single account of the origin and early growth of the Austrian School.
Mises discusses the intellectual milieu in which the Austrian School began, and recalls a conversation he had with Carl Menger. He writes about it with vivid recall, as if it were only yesterday.
He tells how the enemies of the Austrians gave it the label, and how it came to backfire on the historical school. He shows that Austrian economists have always been "independent economists," unconnected with the leviathan state and its approved institutions.
The essay was first published in 1969 — it is one of his last pieces of writing — and remains a crucial text for understanding the history of a tradition.
