Murray Rothbard, political strategy, and the making of modern libertarianism

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Edward Balleisen, Vanessa Freije, Malachi Hacohen, Kevin Schultz, and the participants in the Triangle Legal History Seminar at the National Humanities Center in September 2012 and the “Refiguring the 1970s: New Narratives in U.S. and International History” Graduate Student Conference at the University of Chicago in April 2013 for their comments and critiques.

Notes

1. Rothbard, “It Usually Ends with Ed Crane,” 1.

2. The division of libertarianism into reformist and radical groupings mirrors the split that occurred in German Marxism in the early twentieth century. See Schorske, The Great Schism.

3. McGann, 2011 Global Go To Think Tanks Index Report, 37, 52, 54.

4. Doherty, Radicals for Capitalism, 569.

5. It must be noted that several works, most importantly Nash's The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America since 1945, do examine Rothbard's thought and influence, but do so within the larger matrix of postwar conservatism.

6. The interest in the history of conservatism among US historians was saliently expressed by a roundtable at the 2010 meeting of the Organization of American Historians, “How Should Historians Study Conservatism Now that Studying the Right is Trendy?” Also see Phillips-Fein, “Conservatism.”

7. See Kruse, White Flight; Schulman and Zelizer, Rightward Bound; Phillips-Fein, Invisible Hands; Bowen, The Roots of Modern Conservatism; Robin, The Reactionary Mind; Schäfer, Countercultural Conservatives; Nickerson, Mothers of Conservatism; and Burgin, The Great Persuasion. Moreover, George Nash's foundational 1976 The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America since 1945 has been revised and reissued twice. For more on Nash's book, see Burns, “In Retrospect.”

8. For histories of the American far right, see Ribuffo, The Old Christian Right; MacLean, Behind the Mask of Chivalry; Jeansonne, Women of the Far Right; Simonelli, American Fuehrer; Horne, The Color of Fascism; and Webb, Rabble Rousers.

9. There are also many accounts of libertarian history in various online forums, often written by historical actors themselves. Libertarian activists generally have taken advantage of the opportunities the Internet has afforded to spread and popularize their political opinions.

10. Burns, Goddess of the Market. Rand is also sometimes mentioned in the books referenced in note 6.

11. For sympathetic biographies of Rothbard, see Raimondo, An Enemy of the State and Gordon, “Biography of Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995),” Also see Casey, Murray Rothbard.

12. Rothbard, Ludwig von Mises, 64–5.

13. Rothbard, The Ethics of Liberty, Chap. 6.

14. Ibid., 59.

15. Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty.”

16. Rothbard, The Ethics of Liberty, 216.

17. Rothbard, For a New Liberty (revised ed.), 6. For the four-volume history, see Rothbard, with Liggio, Conceived in Liberty.

18. Rothbard, For a New Liberty (revised ed.), 3.

19. Ibid., 8.

20. The close relationship between Mises and Rothbard may be seen in the fact that Rothbard and his wife JoAnn were invited to numerous celebrations given in honor of Mises throughout the 1950s. Rothbard even wrote an intellectual biography of Mises, cited above. J.B. Matthews, New York, NY. Research Correspondence Series, Box 682, 75A. Ludwig von Mises Correspondence Folder, Duke University Special Collections, Duke University, Durham, NC.

21. Rothbard, Ludwig von Mises, 65.

22. Von Mises, Human Action, 863.

23. Ibid.

24. Ibid.

25. Von Mises, Omnipotent Government, 132, 131.

26. Ibid., 131.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid., 133.

29. Ibid., 134.

30. Von Mises, Human Action, 863.

31. Ibid., 864.

32. Originally published in Rampart Journal in the Summer of 1965, this essay quotes from the reprinting of the article.

33. Rothbard, “The Anatomy of the State,” 62–3.

34. Ibid., 63.

35. Ibid., 88n44. For Rothbard's use of the term “open centers,” see Rothbard, “Strategies for a Libertarian Victory,” 23.

36. Rothbard, “Left and Right,” 21.

37. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 5–7 and Raimondo, An Enemy of the State, 179–82. Also see Rothbard, “Listen, YAF,”

38. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 7–8. Some of the groups highlighted by Rothbard included the California Libertarian Alliance and the Maryland-headquartered Society for Rational Individualism, which together in 1969 founded the Society for Individual Liberty.

39. Ibid., 4.

40. Ibid.

41. Ibid.

42. Rothbard, “National Liberation,” 1. For Avrich's book, see Avrich, The Russian Anarchists.

43. Rothbard, “Present at the Creation,” 1.

44. Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 5.

45. Ibid., 302.

46. Ibid.

47. Ibid.

48. Ibid., 304.

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid.

51. Ibid., 315.

52. Ibid.

53. Ibid., 316.

54. This chapter, although released in 1982, was a revision of an earlier work written in 1974.

55. Rothbard, The Ethics of Liberty, 259, 254.

56. Ibid., 262.

57. Morin, “Free Radical,” C01. I have relied upon this article for biographical details of Crane.

58. Raimondo, Rothbard, 214. For Crane's interest in having Cato affect policy, see Doherty, Radicals, 411.

59. The phrase “mixed personality” comes from Doherty, Radicals, 411, though he uses it in a different sense, describing Cato's attempts “to unify under one institutional roof [Charles] Koch's academic interests, Crane's public policy interests, and the interest of Rothbard's latest ideological best friend Williams ‘Bill’ Evers.”

60. Albert Jay Nock, “Isaiah's Job,” 251.

61. Ibid., 250.

62. Ibid., 248.

63. Rothbard, “Strategies for a Libertarian Victory,” 22.

64. Ibid., 23.

65. Ibid.

66. See Doherty, Radicals for Capitalism, 413–16 for more on the disagreements between Rothbard and Crane and Koch.

67. Doherty, Radicals, 413–18.

68. Rothbard, “The Presidential Campaign,” 1.

69. Ibid., 2. See also Rothbard, “The Clark Campaign,” 1–10.

70. Rothbard, “Crane/Cato Once More”; Rothbard, “Catogate”; Rothbard, “The Crane Machine Revealed”; Rothbard, “Crane Machine Notes”; and Rothbard, “New Crane Machine Floperoo!”

71. Rothbard, “The Crane Machine Revealed,” 2.

72. Rothbard, “It Usually Ends With Ed Crane,” 1. For Rothbard's lists, see Rothbard, “Crane Machine Revealed,” 2–3 and Rothbard, “Crane Machine Notes,” 6.

73. Quoted In Doherty, Radicals, 419.

74. Doherty, “Libertarianism and the Old Right.”

75. Ibid.

76. Ibid.

77. Ibid.

78. Ludwig von Mises Institute, “About the Mises Institute [2014].”

79. Ludwig von Mises Institute, “Frequently Asked Questions.”

80. Ludwig von Mises Institute, “About the Mises Institute [2009].”

81. Boettke, “Austrian Economics and Libertarian Politics”; Tucker, “The Unstoppable Rothbard.”

82. Raimondo, An Enemy of the State, 376. See also Cato Institute, “Home Study Course,” which assigns Rothbard's writings.