Preface by Murray N. Rothbard

Tags: Property Rights, Strategy, War and Foreign Policy

04/30/2026 Murray N. Rothbard

Rothbard introduces Molinari’s essay as a pioneering work that took free-market principles to their logical conclusion by questioning the state’s monopoly on defense. He situates Molinari within the French liberal tradition and highlights the essay’s enduring relevance to libertarian thought.

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.