Ludwig von Mises is to economics what Albert Einstein is to physics, and Human Action is his greatest work. It is a systematic study that covers every major topic in the science of economics. It is also one of the most convincing indictments of socialism and statism ever penned. When it first appeared in English in 1949, it was a sensation, the largest and most scientific defense of human freedom ever published, igniting an eruption of critical acclaim. For instance, Rose Wilder Lane wrote, “I think Human Action is unquestionably the most powerful product of the human mind in our time, and I believe it will change human life for the better during the coming centuries as profoundly as Marxism has changed all of our lives for the worse in this century.” Henry Hazlitt wrote, “It should become the leading text of anyone who believes in freedom, in individualism and in a free market economy.” The acclaim has not ceased, and the book is universally recognized as a classic in the field of modern economics.