In perusing the essays in this volume, one reads over and over of Rothbard’s enthusiasm, his optimism, his zest for life, and especially his sense of humor. He was an enthusiast for many things—Austrian economics, libertarianism, politics, chess, German Baroque church architecture, jazz, and watching sports. He was never depressed—always optimistic—even when, as Ralph Raico writes, optimism seemed unrealistic.
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., is founder and chairman of the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, and editor of LewRockwell.com.
What inspires us about the life of Mises, writes Lew Rockwell, is not his victimhood but his triumph over evil.
While upholding the radical ideal, Rothbard combined idealism with realism, scholarship with accessibility, and boundless curiosity with commitment to truth.
The real founders of economic science actually wrote hundreds of years before Adam Smith.
Auburn, AL: LVMI, 1995.
