War Collectivism: Power, Business, and the Intellectual Class in World War I

Two essays in which Rothbard argues that World War I was the critical watershed for the American business system—a war collectivism, a totally planned economy run largely by big-business interests through the instrumentality of the central government, which became the model and inspiration for state corporate capitalism for the rest of the twentieth century.

The first essay follows the businessmen who staffed the mobilization agencies that governed their own industries. The second essay follows the intellectuals, clergy, and economists for whom the war was not a catastrophe but a fulfillment.