Selected major works by Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995), who made important contributions to economics, history, political philosophy, and legal theory. Rothbard combined Austrian economics with a fervent commitment to individual liberty.
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America’s Great Depression
This book applies Austrian business cycle theory to understanding the onset of the 1929 Great Depression. Rothbard first summarizes the Austrian theory and offers a criticism of competing theories, including the views of Keynes. Rothbard then...
Anatomy of the State
This gives a succinct account of Rothbard’s view of the state. Following Franz Oppenheimer and Albert Jay Nock, Rothbard regards the state as a predatory entity. It does not produce anything but rather steals resources from those engaged in...
The Betrayal of the American Right
Rothbard identifies a movement he calls the “Old Right.” This was a libertarian movement that included Albert Jay Nock, H.L. Mencken, and John T. Flynn. It was in part a reaction to American entry into World War I, and this group joined with...
The Case Against the Fed
Rothbard provides a succinct account of the origins of money, showing how money must originate from a commodity. Banking originated from goldsmiths, who issued warehouse receipts for gold deposited with them. From this a fractional reserve...
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Complete Libertarian Forum (1969-1984)
Libertarian Forum existed from 1969 to 1984. It was a passionate, smart, gossipy, and often shocking newsletter that is as fresh today as when it was written.
Conceived in Liberty
Click here for Conceived in Liberty, Volume 5: The New Republic: 1784–1791 There’s never been a better time to remember the revolutionary and even libertarian roots of the American founding, and there’s no better guide to what this means in the...
Economic Controversies
After Murray Rothbard finished his theoretical magnum opus — Man, Economy, and State — he turned his attention away from pure positive theory toward dealing with the opposition to Austrian theory. The result was a long series of fantastic...
Education: Free and Compulsory
What is it about today’s school system that so many find unsatisfactory? Why have generations of reformers failed to improve the educational system, and, indeed, caused it to degenerate further and further into an ever declining level of...
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The Ethics of Liberty
Murray Rothbard’s greatest contribution to the politics of freedom is back in print. Following up on Mises’s demonstration that a society without private property degenerates into economic chaos, Rothbard shows that every interference with...
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature, and Other Essays
Egalitarianism as a Revolt against Nature, and Other Essays is vital reading for anyone interested in the thought of Murray Rothbard. The book is his comprehensive effort to present libertarianism as a “science of liberty.” In order to grasp...
History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II
The master teacher of American economic history covers money and banking in the whole of American history, to show that the meltdown of our times is hardly the first. And guess what caused them in the past? Paper money, loose credit, reckless...
For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto
Book Club Discussion Guide In For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto , Rothbard proposes a once-and-for-all escape from the two major political parties, the ideologies they embrace, and their central plans for using state power against...
The Irrepressible Rothbard
Summing up the work of libertarian economist and historian Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) and noting its stunning range, philosopher David Gordon once wondered “if there are really three, four, or five geniuses writing under his name.” The...
Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought (Complete, 1965-1968)
The most influential and famous low-circulation, typewriter-typed scholarly journal of the 20th century.
Left, Right, and the Prospects for Liberty
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...
Making Economic Sense
Do you ever watch the business news and think: what would Murray Rothbard say about this? He remained a news junky all his life, even while working on his grand scholarly treatises. He was no academic snob; he believed, like Mises, that...
Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market
Murray N. Rothbard’s great treatise Man, Economy, and State and its complementary text Power and Market, are here combined into a single edition as they were written to be. It provides a sweeping presentation of Austrian economic theory, a...
The Mystery of Banking
Readers of The Mystery of Banking will find that money and banking are, contrary to what the book’s title might suggest, no longer a mystery to them. Textbooks on money and banking are often prolix, dull, and confusing, but Murray Rothbard...
The Panic of 1819: Reactions and Policies
The panic of 1819 was America’s first great economic crisis. And this is Murray Rothbard’s masterful account, the first full scholarly book on the topic and still the most definitive. It was his dissertation, published in 1962 but nearly...
Power and Market: Government and the Economy
What can government do to enhance social and economic well being? Nothing, says Murray N. Rothbard. Power and Market contains the proof. It will inoculate the reader against even the slightest temptation to invoke the state as a solution to any...
