Never a Dull Moment

[From the Introduction by Justin Raimondo.]

Murray Rothbard was a true polymath. He wasn’t just the number one theoretician of the modern libertarian movement — author of the monumental Man, Economy, and State; Conceived in Liberty, a four-volume history of the American Revolution; the two-volume An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought; and essays too numerous to list — he was also its most tireless publicist, at least in its early days.

He didn’t live in an ivory tower: far from it. As he wrote in a 178-page memo entitled “Strategy For Libertarian Social Change”:

If the advancement of liberty requires a movement as well as a body of ideas, it is our contention that the overriding goal of a libertarian movement must be the victory of liberty in the real world, the bringing of the ideal into actuality. [Emphasis in original]1

The material herein is presented in chronological order and is published exactly as written: my insertions are in brackets. The two final essays provide the vital context for the preceding material, explaining Rothbard’s break with the conservatives and prefiguring the rise of libertarianism as an independent movement — a development for which he was largely responsible.

Notes

1.“Strategy for Libertarian Social Change,” unpublished manuscript, 1978.

Note: The views expressed on Mises.org are not necessarily those of the Mises Institute.

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