16

In Defense of Rights

David Gordon

If a recent work is to be believed, the entire basis of Murray Rothbard’s political thought rests on myth. As even Macaulay’s schoolboy knows, Rothbard’s defense of libertarianism stands or falls with the notion of “natural rights.” It is precisely this idea that L. A. Rollins, whose engaging and much discussed pamphlet The Myth of Natural Rights1 I propose to examine, dismisses as unfounded.

17

Ethics vs. Coercion: Morality or Just Values?

Tibor R. Machan

Government versus the State

The state consists of full time professionals in coercion.”1 Murray Rothbard believes this and that is why he calls himself an anarchist. He is an opponent of coercion, ultimately on grounds of “a natural rights theory embedded in a wider system of Aristotelian-Lockean natural law and a realistic ontology and metaphysics.”2

18

Historical Entitlement and the
Right to Natural Resources

Jeffrey Paul

Part 3

Political Science

19

The Role of Government

Randall G. Holcombe

20

Caste and Class: The Rothbardian
View of Governments and Markets

David Osterfeld

21

The Political Importance
of Murray N. Rothbard

Ron Paul

It would be difficult to exaggerate Professor Murray N. Rothbard’s influence on the movement for freedom and free markets. He is the living giant of Austrian economics, and he has led the now-formidable movement ever since the death of his great teacher, Ludwig von Mises, in 1971. We are all indebted to him for the living link he has provided to Mises, upon whose work he has built and expanded.

Part 4

History

22

A Utopia for Liberty:
Individual Freedom in
Austin Tappan Wright’s Islandia

Arthur A. Ekirch, Jr.

23

John Prince Smith and the
German Free-Trade Movement

Ralph Raico