Foundational Economic Essays

This collection features seminal essays and works that have shaped economic thought, exploring themes of wealth, capitalism, and social structures. From the critiques of consumerism to the advocacy for free markets, these texts provide a rich tapestry of ideas that continue to influence contemporary economic discourse.

The History of Standard Oil

by Ida M. Tarbell Read by Tom Weiss 4.7
The History of the Standard Oil Company is a book written by journalist Ida Tarbell in 1904. It was an exposé of the Standard Oil Com…

The Empire of Business

by Andrew Carnegie Read by LibriVox Volunteers 4.6
This collection of essays by Scottish-American steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie, gathered from various periodicals and first published in…

Other People's Money

by Louis D. Brandeis Read by LibriVox Volunteers 4.3
Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It is a collection of essays written by Louis Brandeis published as a book in 1914. The book at…

The Gospel of Wealth

by Andrew Carnegie Read by Michele Fry 4.4
What is the proper mode of administering great wealth? It is to address this question that steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie's famous essay "…

The Wealth of Nations

by Adam Smith Read by Stephen Escalera 4.7
The Wealth of Nations is a foundational text in economics, penned by Scottish philosopher Adam Smith during the transformative period of the…

The Theory of the Leisure Class

by Thorstein Veblen Read by LibriVox Volunteers 4.5
Originally published by the Norwegian-American economist Thorstein Veblen while he was a professor at the University of Chicago in 1898, the…

The Servile State

by Hilaire Belloc Read by Ray Clare 4.9
In The Servile State, Hilaire Belloc explores the stark divide between servile and non-servile labor, presenting a thought-provoking analysi…

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science

by Ludwig Von Mises Read by LibriVox Volunteers 4.5
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 Sch…