Karl Menger’s Unfinished Biography of His Father: New Insights into Carl Menger’s Life through 1889

Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University Working Paper Series, 2020

ASU Center for the Study of Economic Liberty Research Paper

60 Pages Posted: 3 Feb 2020

See all articles by Reinhard Schumacher

Reinhard Schumacher

Universität Potsdam

Scott Scheall

Arizona State University, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Faculty of Social Science

Date Written: January 9, 2020

Abstract

During the last years of his life, the mathematician Karl Menger worked on a biography of his father, the economist and founder of the Austrian School of Economics, Carl Menger. The younger Menger never finished the work. While working in the Menger collections at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, we discovered draft chapters of the biography, a valuable source of information given that relatively little is known about Carl Menger’s life nearly a hundred years after his death. The unfinished biography covers Carl Menger’s family background and his life through early 1889. In this article, we discuss the biography and the most valuable new insights it provides into Carl Menger’s life, including Carl Menger’s family, his childhood, his student years, his time working as a journalist and newspaper editor, his early scientific career, and his relationship with Crown Prince Rudolf.

Keywords: Carl Menger, Karl Menger, Austrian Economics, Liberalism in Austria, Crown Prince Rudolf, Anton Menger

Suggested Citation

Schumacher, Reinhard and Scheall, Scott, Karl Menger’s Unfinished Biography of His Father: New Insights into Carl Menger’s Life through 1889 (January 9, 2020). Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University Working Paper Series, 2020, ASU Center for the Study of Economic Liberty Research Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3516766 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3516766

Scott Scheall

Arizona State University, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Faculty of Social Science ( email )

7001 E. Williams Field Rd.
Mesa, AZ 85212
United States

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