The late Ludwig Lachmann was a major and controversial contributor to the Austrian school of economics. This collection of his essays challenges contemporary attitudes on economics and applies an interpretive approach to the discipline. The essays span six decades and address a wide range of issues in microeconomics, macroeconomics, methodology and the history of thought. Well written and insightful, they pose a fundamental challenge to mainstream economics, striking at the very heart of what has gone wrong with the "dismal science."

Lachmann's approach to economics emphasizes the meaning of human institutions in a world of unpredictable change rather than the quantitative and stable relations of mainstream economics. His work clarifies the role of expectations in economic processes and explains why they elude formalistic analysis. This collection gathers Lachmann's most important work for the first time and includes two previously unpublished essays.