John, and others, on Menger's influence on Mises (which is incorrectly attributed as
minimal I would argue) the counter evidence is (as a start) would be: (a) Mises's own
statements in NOTES & RECOLLECTIONS where he explicitly states that reading Menger's
Principles is what made him an economist, and (b) in HUMAN ACTION, when he discusses the
"Epistemological Importance of Carl Menger's Theory of Money" Mises says that not only
does Menger provide a correct theory of the origin of money, but in so doing provides the
"exemplar" of the praxeological method and its style of research.
  
Mises's theory of society (he has a chapter in Human Action devoted to this) is one
grounded in the theory of social cooperation.
  
Not only is Mises's theory not as reductionists as John Medalle is suggesting (there is a
primary and secondary literature on this in the field, e.g., Mises explicit contrasts his
approach with homoeconomicus and others have picked up on this to discuss the idea of
methodological individualism as a non-reductionist position).  But he is explicit that
catallactics (theory of the market) has limits, as does praxeology (theory of action).
The point that Mises was making was for a _praxeological_ analysis the analytical focus
has to be on purposes and plans of actors.  Other factors may impact, but they might not
be of praxeological relevance.  For example, we may learn more about brain research and
the chemical reactions firing off in our head when making decisions. But still what
matters for praxeology is the fact that individuals have purposes and plans and must
choose and in making those choices must pursue one path and forgo another, etc., etc.
  
As Mises says, he does not deny collective entities exist, the question is how do we
render them intelligible.
  
Sam Bostaph points to the connection between Mises work and Mengers --- rightfully so.
But one can also look at the link between Mises and Weber --- Ludwig Lachmann's The Legac
of Max Weber (Univ of California Press, 1971) is great on this, as is his earlier book
review of Mises's Nationaleconomie in Economica.  Richard Swedberg has picked up on this
theme and you can see some great connections between Mises's theory of social cooperation
and Weber's in Swedberg's Max Weber's Economic Sociology (Princeton University Press).
  
Finally, another sociological thinker directly influenced by Mises (who was his teacher)
is Alfred Schutz.
  
Pete Boettke