Libertarian and Austrian Festschrifts

by Stephan Kinsella on May 14, 2026

I’ve long been fascinated with scholarship and publishing, ¹ and with the concept of a Festschrift ever since I came across Rothbard’s (see below). I became more interested in this when I helped produce Hans Hoppe’s first Festchrift in 2009. As I wrote recently in yet another such work (my Preface to the a recent Gedenkschrift for Rothbard (a Gedenkschrift is a type of Festchrift, as is a Liber Amicorum):

A Festschrift (or liber amicorum) is a collection of scholarly and personal reflections in honor of an important thinker on some important occasion such as retirement and so on. It is rare for a scholar’s œuvre to be significant and influential enough to merit this; even rarer is the scholar who warrants two. Mises himself had two. The first was published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his doctorate at the University of Vienna in 1906. The second was published on the occasion of his 90^th birthday ….

Rothbard’s only Festschrift was published when he was 62 and based on papers produced from a conference discussing Rothbard’s work in the year of his 60^th birthday. There can be little doubt that had he lived past the age of 68, another Festschrift in his honor would have been produced by now, as was the case for his teacher, Mises—as well as for his most important (informal) student and colleague, Professor Hoppe, who also received two such accolades, on the occasions of his 60^th and 75^th birthdays. We, his intellectual children and students at the PFS, could not let his 100^th birthday pass without giving recognition and tribute to this great and good man, to whom we are so grateful. We hope this volume serves as a fitting Gedenkschrift, a posthumous Festschrift in his honor. ²

Below are the Festschrifts of which I am aware for libertarian and Austrian scholars (I have chapters in 5 of these: both of Hoppe’s, Block’s, Gabb’s, and the recent Rothbard Gedenkschrift). ³ (I omit some, e.g. ones for Lavoie and Lachmann.) ⁴

Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973; Festschrift 1956): On Freedom and Free Enterprise: Essays in Honor of Ludwig von Mises, Mary Sennholz, ed. (Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1956; Mises Institute reprint 2008). ⁵ Published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his doctorate at the University of Vienna in 1906.
Friedrich A. von Hayek (1899–1992; Festschrift 1969): Roads to Freedom: Essays in Honour of Friedrich A. von Hayek, Erich Streissler, Gottfried Haberler, Friedrich A. Lutz, and Fritz Machlup, eds. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969). Presented for Hayek’s 70th birthday. [Internet Archive]
Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973; Festschrift 1971): Toward Liberty: Essays in Honor of Ludwig von Mises on the Occasion of his 90th Birthday, September 29, 1971, F.A. Hayek, et al., eds. (two volumes; Menlo Park, Cal.: Institute for Human Studies, 1971). Published on the occasion of his 90^th birthday, about which Mises wrote to his wife: “The only good thing about being a nonagenarian is that you are able to read your obituaries while you are still alive.” ⁶
Friedrich A. von Hayek (1899–1992; Festschrift 1979): Zur Verfassung der Freiheit: Festgabe für Friedrich A. von Hayek zur Vollendung seines achtzigsten Lebensjahres (Ordo, Vol. 30), Fritz Meyer et al., eds. (Stuttgart/New York: Gustav Fischer Verlag, 1979). Presented for Hayek’s 80th birthday.
Friedrich A. von Hayek (1899–1992; Festschrift 1985): The Political Economy of Freedom: Essays in Honor of F.A. Hayek, Kurt R. Leube and Albert H. Zlabinger, eds. (Munich/Vienna: Philosophia Verlag, 1985). Amazon.
Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995; Festschrift 1988): Man, Economy, and Liberty: Essays in Honor of Murray N. Rothbard, Walter Block & Llewellyn H. Rockwell, eds. (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 1988). ⁷ Presented for Rothbard’s 60th birthday.
Hans F. Sennholz (1922–2007; Festschrift 1992): A Man of Principle: Essays in Honor of Hans F. Sennholz, John W. Robbins and Mark Spangler, eds. (Grove City, PA: Grove City College Press, 1992).
Hans-Hermann Hoppe (1949–; Festschrift 2009): Jörg Guido Hülsmann & Stephan Kinsella, eds., Property, Freedom, and Society: Essays in Honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2009). Presented for Hoppe’s 60th birthday.
Tibor R. Machan (1939–2016; Festschrift 2011): Reality, Reason, and Rights: Essays in Honor of Tibor R. Machan, Douglas B. Rasmussen, Aeon J. Skoble, and Douglas J. Den Uyl, eds. (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2011). Presented for Machan’s 70th birthday.
Joseph T. Salerno (1950–; Festschrift 2015): The Next Generation of Austrian Economics: Essays in Honor of Joseph T. Salerno, Per Bylund and David Howden, eds. (Auburn, AL: The Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2015). Salerno was 65.
Sean Gabb (1959–; Festschrift 2019): Digital Festschrift, Keir Martland, ed. (untitled; 2019). On his 60th birthday.
David Gordon (1948—; Festschrift 2022): Defending Liberty: Essays in Honor of David Gordon, Douglas B. Rasmussen and Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski, eds. (Auburn, AL: The Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2022)
Jesús Huerta de Soto (1956; Festschrift 2023): The Emergence of a Tradition: Essays in Honor of Jesús Huerta de Soto (2 volumes), David Howden and Philipp Bagus, eds. (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan / Springer, 2023). [Vol. II]
Hans-Hermann Hoppe (1949–; Liber Amicorum 2024): Jörg Guido Hülsmann & Stephan Kinsella, eds., A Life in Liberty: Liber Amicorum in Honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2024). presented for Hoppe’s 75th birthday.
Walter E. Block (1941–; Festschrift 2025): Walter Block – Anarcho-Capitalist Austro-Libertarian, Elvira Nica & Gheorghe H. Popescu, eds. (Addleton Academic Publishers, 2025).
Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995; Gedenkshrift 2026): Rothbard at 100: A Tribute and Assessment, Stephan Kinsella and Hans-Hermann Hoppe, eds. (Papinian Press and The Saif House, 2026). Published for Rothbard’s 100th birthday and 100th birth year (digital release March 2, 2026).