[595] in libertarians
Laissez Faire Book News: Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Whitten)
Thu Feb 2 14:57:50 1995
Date: Thu, 2 Feb 1995 14:48:18 -0500 (EST)
From: Chris Whitten <lfb@panix.com>
Apparently-To: <libertarians@mit.edu>
Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995)
by Robert D. Kephart
Murray Rothbard was the primary animating force in the powerful
libertarian revolution now unfolding throughout the world. It was
Rothbard's gift for clear expression that rendered comprehensible the
often impenetrable thought of his Austrian School predecessors to the
benefit of the eager generation today leading the assault on
socialism's weakening domination of academic and public policy. The
staggering volume of his writing on every facet of theoretical and
applied economics, his application of Austrian School principles to
the American condition and his passionate, exuberant and witty style
have gained a tremendous number of converts to free-market capitalism.
But to think of Murray Rothbard as a mere economist would be
like thinking of Leonardo as a mere painter. Rothbard's unbounded
passion for knowledge drove him to explore every remote corner in
the fields of economics, history, sociology, political theory and
philosophy. His works number over 20 books in several languages
and thousands of popular and scholarly articles and reviews. Has
any other body of scholarly work ever radiated such exuberance,
such compelling rationality, such passion? To read Rothbard is to
be entertained and informed and to experience as a reader, the same
*joie de vivre* that animated the writer.
Through it all, his lack of pretension was to me a never
ending wonder. I recall when, in 1973, he casually mentioned that
he had written a history of colonial America, which I took to
mean an article. What emerged from a dusty cardboard box, almost
forgotten, was a manuscript of several thousand pages written
without conviction that it might some day be published, but
simply for the pleasure of self-enlightenment. (Subsequently
published in four volumes as *Conceived in Liberty*.)
Unlike most scholars, content as they usually are with
theoretical exposition, Rothbard was a dedicated activist, indeed
a "revolutionary of the deed," who worked tirelessly to unite
theory and action in the quest for liberty. And it was this facet
of the man that was at once responsible for the public prominence
gained during the last 25 years of his life, as it was for his
shameless consignment by the Marxist/socialist/liberal axis
dominating academia to the same kind of limbo that Ludwig von
Mises had known before him. He suffered these unforgivable
affronts with consistent good humor and a certain resignation,
knowing well the tide was beginning to turn.
Born into a family environment that was strongly Marxist,
Murray from the beginning of his political consciousness was a
free-market man. He was drawn to the libertarian works of Nock,
Paterson, and Lane, and became a disciple of Mises in economics.
He involved himself actively in the anti-war movement of the
Vietnam era, was close to Rand and her circle for a while, then
took up with the Libertarian Party, but his aim was always to
spread the libertarian idea and to realize it as much as
politically possible. The modern libertarian movement, for which
he was the guiding intellectual influence, was to a great extent
the product of his works. His break from the movement to embrace
what he called "paleo-libertarianism," a coalition with populist,
non-interventionist and religious elements of the American right
wing, was particularly bitter and left many of his admirers hurt
and bewildered.
As one long ago converted by Murray to natural rights-based
anarcho-capitalism from precisely the position he had now
adopted, this new chapter greatly troubled me. At several
junctions I attempted to dissuade him from so decisively burning
his bridges to the movement he had founded. But he had become
deeply offended by the cultural nihilism that he believed to
pervade the modern libertarian movement, and for him, there was
no gray area, and no turning back.
Only with the sustenance of my memories of our friendship
and wonderful times together, can I contemplate a world without
this great and lovable man, at once an intellectual giant who
seemed to have read, understood and remembered *everything*, and
a hilariously funny raconteur and mimic. Nobody who ever heard
his uproarious cackle could forget his capacity for pleasure,
nobody who ever offered some flawed argument in his presence will
ever forget the rhetorical torrent of fact following fact that
left it in shreds.
We spent a congenial evening together a few weeks before his
January 7 death. He was, as always, upbeat and infectiously
optimistic about the future and excited by the publication (this
month) of his epic two volume treatise on the history of economic
thought. He was the Happy Warrior of old--slashing in his
denunciation of the new GOP leadership and other enemies real and
imagined, warmly sympathetic about the worsening condition of our
mutual friend, Neil McCaffrey, who preceded him in death by just
a month. And he spoke tenderly that evening about Joey, his wife
of 40 years, his constant companion, editor, confidant and
conscience--a marriage rich in mutual love and respect.
In the grand sweep of history, Murray Rothbard will be
judged only by the vast *oeuvre* he bequeaths the world. The
peccadilloes, the personal feuds, strategic misjudgments he may
have made, will pass forgotten. If justice prevails, so long as
the spark of liberty burns in the minds and souls of men, he will
be remembered as its resolute champion, and if, as he believed,
we are now witnessing the dawn of the withering of the state,
Rothbard's legacy will tower over those of Locke, Voltaire,
Smith, Mises, Hayek, Friedman, and the rest, for only he among
them understood that no vestige of the state could remain if men
are to be free.
*Adieu*, old friend, *adieu*.
(Robert Kephart founded *Libertarian Review*, *Books for
Libertarians*, and other publications.)
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Please send this tribute to anyone who you think might be interested
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FOR A NEW LIBERTY
The Libertarian Manifesto
by Murray N. Rothbard
MR0141 (paperback) 338p. $12.95
ETHICS OF LIBERTY
by Murray N. Rothbard
read by Jeff Riggenbach
LI6121 (7 audiotapes) 10 1/2 hrs. $49.95
THE CASE AGAINST THE FED
by Murray N. Rothbard
CB6256 (paperback) 158p. $9.95
MAN, ECONOMY AND STATE
by Murray N. Rothbard
with a new introduction by the author
AU5881 (paperback) 987p. $24.95
POWER AND MARKET
by Murray N. Rothbard
MR0566 (paperback) 304p. $9.95
WHAT HAS GOVERNMENT DONE TO OUR MONEY?
by Murray N. Rothbard
IV7097 (paperback) 119p. $4.95
AMERICA'S GREAT DEPRESSION
by Murray N. Rothbard
MR0145 (hardcover) 346p. $19.95
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Chris
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Chris Whitten LFB@panix.com
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