Omnipotent Government

Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War
Author(s)	Ludwig von Mises
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject(s)	Nazism, Nationalism, Socialism, Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany
Genre(s)	Non-fiction
Publisher	Yale University Press, Libertarian Press
Publication date	1944
Pages	ix, 291 pp
ISBN	NA

Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War is a book by Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises first published in 1944 by Yale University Press. It is one of the most influential writings in Right-libertarian social thought and critique of statist ideology and socialism, examining the rise of Nazism as an example. The book treats Nazism as a species of orthodox socialist theory. At the same time the book offers a critique of economic interventionism, industrial central planning, the welfare state and world government, denouncing the trends of the Western Allies towards the total state. The book was made available online by the Ludwig von Mises Institute in 2004.

Publication history

• Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1944.
• Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1969. ISBN 0870000691.
• Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War. Spring Mills, PA: Libertarian Press, 1985. ISBN 0910884153.

Reviews

• Basch, Antonin (1944). Review of Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government. The American Economic Review 34.4, 899-903.
• Baster, A. S. J. (1945). Review of Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government. Economica, New Series 12.45, 39-40.
• Coker, Francis W. (1944). Review of Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government; The Rise of the Total State and Total War. The American Political Science Review 38.5, 1003-1005.
• Hessen, Robert (1970). Review of Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government. The Objectivist 9.8.
• Hexner, Ervin (1945). Review of Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government. The Rise of the Total State and Total War. Social Forces 23.4, 466-467.
• Kohn, Hans (1945). Review of Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War. The American Historical Review 50.3, 531-533.
• Minshall, T. H. (1947). Review of Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government. The Rise of the Total State and Total War. International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-) 23.2, 240-241.
• Passant, E. J. (1944). Review of Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government, and Norman Angell, Let the People Know. The Economic Journal 54.215/216, 384-387.
• Robson, Charles B. (1945). Review of Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government; The Rise of the Total State and Total War. The Journal of Politics 7.1, 98-100.
• Rothbard, Murray N. (1975). Reviews of Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government and Theory and History. Libertarian Review, June 1975, p. 1.
• Simons, Henry C. (1944). Review of Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 236, Adolescents in Wartime, pp. 192–193

Translations

• (Spanish) Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotencia Gubernamental. Translated by Pedro Elgoibar. Mexico: Editorial Hermes, n.d.
• (French) Ludwig von Mises, Le Gouvernement Omnipotent de L`État Totalitaire à la Guerre Total. Translated by M. de Hulster. Paris: Librairie de Médicis, 1947.
• (German) Ludwig von Mises, Im Namen des Staates, oder Die Gefahren des Kollektivismus [In the Name of the State: or the Dangers of Collectivism]. Stuttgart: Bonn Aktuell, 1978. ISBN 3879590915
• (Russian) Людвиг фон Мизес, Всемогущее правительство: Тотальное государство и тотальная война. Moscow: Социум, 2007. ISBN 5901901601.

See also

• The Road to Serfdom

Full text

• Omnipotent Government, 1944 edition:
  • Full text in HTML
  • Full text in PDF

External links

• Hans F. Sennholz's review of Ludwig von Mises' Omnipotent Government - YouTube Video