Title Page
The Private Volker Fund
Memos of Murray N. Rothbard
Edited by David Gordon
Foreword by
Brian Doherty
Copyright
© 2010 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute and published under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0. http://creativecommons.Org/licenses/by/3.0/
Ludwig von Mises Institute
518 West Magnolia Avenue
Auburn, Alabama 36832
ISBN: 978-1-933550-80-0
Foreword by Brian Doherty
I never met Murray Rothbard.
Because I am the author of Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement, that was highly unfortunate. More than any other person, Murray Rothbard was the modern American libertarian movement.
Introduction by David Gordon
The recent publication of Rothbard versus the Philosophers, edited by Roberta Modugno, brought to many readers’ attention a not very well-known aspect of Murray Rothbard’s work. His vast published output did not exhaust his writing. To the contrary, a large number of important items had never been published. Many of these were reports on books and conferences that Rothbard wrote while he worked for the William Volker Fund, which during the late 1950s and early 1960s was the principal American foundation supporting classical liberalism.
I. Setting the Stage
Rothbard’s Confidential Memorandum to the Volker Fund, “What Is to Be Done?”
July 1961
To: F.A. Harper, George Resch
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
II. Political Theory
1. Are Libertarians “Anarchists”?
(date unknown)
To: Aubrey Herbert
III. History
1. Marxism and Charles Beard
April 1954
An evaluation of the extent of Marxist ideas in the work of Charles A. Beard is an extraordinarily difficult task. Due to his remarkably prolific output over the years, and the changes that took place in his ideas, I can do no more here than indicate some of the points that would be significant in any full-scale attempt to evaluate Beard’s writings and influence as a whole.
5. Report on George B. DeHuszar and Thomas Hulbert Stevenson, A History of the American Republic, 2 vols
5. Report on George B. DeHuszar and Thomas Hulbert Stevenson, A History of the American Republic, 2 vols.
September 1961
6. Review of Douglass C. North, The Economic Growth of the United States, 1790-1860
6. Review of Douglass C. North, The Economic Growth of the United States, 1790–1860
May 1, 1961
Dr. Ivan R. Bierly
William Volker Fund
Dear Ivan:
Douglass C. North’s The Economic Growth of the United States, 1790–1860 is an almost totally unfortunate work.21 It combines all the worst aspects of the currently fashionable “science” of economic history, as contrasted to the older and sounder disciplines of sound economic theory applied to the fabric of history.
IV. Economics
1. Spotlight on Keynesian Economics
October 20, 1947
Its Significance
Fifty years ago, an exuberant American people knew little and cared less about economics. They understood, however, the virtues of economic freedom, and this understanding was shared by the economists, who supplemented common sense with sharper tools of analysis.
