Left, Right, and the Prospects for Liberty

Murray N. Rothbard

The Conservative has long been marked, whether he knows it or not, by long-run pessimism: by the belief that the long-run trend, and therefore Time itself, is against him, and hence the inevitable trend runs toward left-wing statism at home and Communism abroad. It is this long-run despair that accounts for the Conservative’s rather bizarre short-run optimism; for since the long-run is given up as hopeless, the Conservative feels that his only hope of success rests in the current moment.

Left, Right, and the Prospects for Liberty by Murray Rothbard
Meet the Author
Murray N. Rothbard
Murray N. Rothbard

Murray N. Rothbard made major contributions to economics, history, political philosophy, and legal theory. He combined Austrian economics with a fervent commitment to individual liberty.

Murray N. Rothbard

In contemplating the life and career of Ludwig von Mises, one is struck by the nobility and grandeur, the high courage, of his lonely and lifelong struggle on behalf of truth and laissez-faire. But what led Mises to pursue his lonely and seemingly doomed struggle until the very end?

Murray N. Rothbard

Remembering Murray Rothbard on our imperialistic wars: "The true principle of isolationism is that the government should be isolated and people who trade, interchange, and engage in voluntary travel, migration, and so forth should be allowed to peacefully do so."

View Murray N. Rothbard bio and works
References

Left and Right, Spring 1965, pp. 4-22.