Young Mr. Mises and younger historicists: origins of Mises's liberalism.

Mises's very first expression of a liberal outlook is usually associated with the 1919 Nation, Economy, and State because very little is known about his earlier work. Several recent studies, however, suggest that the Viennese social space and the Habsburg's socioeconomic reality influenced Mises's liberalism during his studies at the University of Vienna. This paper shows that Mises's liberal outlook traces back to his early work, influenced by Younger Historicist members of the Verein für Sozialpolitik, such as Knapp and Grünberg. We argue that Mises's early work expressed a rationalist liberal outlook that intertwined with the social policy reform aspirations of the Verein für Sozialpolitik. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]