Power and Market: Government and the Economy

Business & Money

MURRAY N. ROTHBARD

Murray Rothbard

Economics

Sheed, Andrews, and McMeel

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LARGE PRINT EDITION! More at LargePrintLiberty.com  For many who have read this book-length essay, it marked a turning point in a new understanding.  The mainstream will forever attempt to pigeonhole belief systems based on the left-right dichotomy. The right supposedly favors economic freedom plus militarism, while the left favors socialism plus peace. Rothbard says that this breakdown is not only incoherent, it has no support in the history of ideas.  In fact, Rothbard goes further to say that traditionally, the right has been the party of the establishment, of stasis, of the status quo, while the left in history has been the party of progress, freedom, and peace. These roles have periodically reversed based on the times and the country in question. But in these reversals, the intellectual coherence of these paradigms has gotten lost and confused.  Rothbard's broad look is a mind-opening experience. It has the effect of liberating you from the prevailing paradigm.  Rothbard's main task, however, is to provide a completely new and ideologically consistent lens with which to view history and current events.

Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Cato Institute

The appearance of the famous (and massive) volumes of Rothbard's History of Economic Thought in a new edition is cause for great celebration. They have been out of print for many years, and were previously only available at a price exceeding $200 for the set. They are at last accessible again, in beautiful hardcover, and at an affordable price.
 In Economic Thought Before Adam Smith, Murray Rothbard traces economic ideas from ancient sources to show that laissez-faire liberalism and economic thought itself began with the scholastics and early Roman, Greek, and canon law. He celebrates Aristotle and Democritus, for example, but loathes Plato and Diogenes. He is kind toward Taoism and Stoicism. He is no fan of Tertullian but very much likes St. Jerome, who defended the merchant class. Now, that takes us only to page 33, just the beginning of a wild ride through the middle ages and renaissance and modern times through 1870.
 Rothbard read deeply in thinkers dating back hundreds and thousands of years, and spotted every promising line of thought — and every unfortunate one. He knew when an idea would lead to prosperity, and when it would lead to calamity. He could spot a proto-Keynesian or proto-Marxist idea in the middle ages, just as he could find free-market lines of thought in ancient manuscripts.
 Many scholars believe this was his most important work. The irony is that it is not the work it was supposed to be, and thank goodness. He was asked to do a short overview of the modern era. He ended up writing more than 1,000 pages of original ideas that remade the whole of intellectual history up through the late 19th century. 
 Once Rothbard got into the project, he found that most all historians have made the same error: they have believed that the history of thought was a long history of progress. He found that sound ideas ebb and flow in history. So he set out to rescue the great ideas from the past and compare them with the bad ideas of the "new economics." 
 His demolition of Karl Marx is more complete and in depth than any other ever published. His reconstruction of 19th-century banking debates has provided enough new ideas for a dozen dissertations, and contemporary real-money reform. His surprising evisceration of John Stuart Mill is cause to rethink the whole history of classical liberalism. 
 Most famously, Rothbard demonstrated that Adam Smith's economic theories were, in many ways, a comedown from his predecessors in France and Spain. For example, Smith puzzled over the source of value and finally tagged labor as the source (a mistake Marx built on). But for centuries prior, the earliest economists knew that value came from within the human mind. It was a human estimation, not an objective construct. 
 Rothbard was a pioneer in incorporating the sociology of religion into the history of economic ideas. He saw that the advent of Christianity had a huge impact on the theory of the state. He observed the rise of absolutism and theory of nationalism that came with the reformation. He traced the changes in the Western view toward lending and interest payments over the course of a thousand years. 
 This set is a monument to Rothbard's genius, a resource that will be valuable to intellectuals for generations, and a great read too!

An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (2 Vol. Set)

Ludwig von Mises Institute

Murray Rothbard was known as the state's greatest living enemy, and this book is his most succinct and powerful statement on the topic. He explains what a state is and what it is not. He shows how it is an institution that violates all that we hold as honest and moral, and how it operates under a false cover. He shows how the state wrecks freedom, destroys civilization, and threatens all lives and property and social well being, all under the veneer of "good intentions."

Anatomy of the State

Lulu

An important analysis of business cycle theory, what causes economic booms and busts and what options are available to combat them. Murray Rothbard's discussion of Austrian school business cycle theory appears in other books. However, what sets this book apart is the introduction by Robert Wenzel, who in the introduction provides a brief but extremely informative history of Austrian school economics and its relevancy in the modern day world.

Austrian School Business Cycle Theory

lulu.com

For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto

LARGE PRINT EDITION! More at LargePrintLiberty.com. A classic that for over two decades has been hailed as the best general work on libertarianism available. Rothbard begins with a quick overview of its historical roots, and then goes on to define libertarianism as resting "upon one single axiom: that no man or group of men shall aggress upon the person or property of anyone else." He writes a withering critique of the chief violator of liberty: the State. Rothbard then provides penetrating libertarian solutions for many of today's most pressing problems, including poverty, war, threats to civil liberties, the education crisis, and more.

Philosophy

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

The Betrayal of the American Right

LARGE PRINT EDITION! More at LargePrintLiberty.com  This remarkable piece of history will change the way you look at American politics. It shows that the corruption of American "conservatism" began long before George W. Bush ballooned the budget and asserted dictatorial rights over the country and the world. The American Right long ago slid into the abyss. Betrayal of the American Right is the full story, and the author is none other than Murray N. Rothbard, who witnessed it all first hand. He tells his own story and reveals that machinations behind the subversion of an anti-state movement into one that cheers statism of the worst sort. The book was written in the mid-1970s and is only now published for the first time. Each time a prospective publisher promised to go ahead, the deal fell through. Even so, it has been privately circulated for the 30 years since it was written - and everyone lucky enough to own a copy of the manuscript knew he had a treasure. People who have read it swear that it is the best account ever how the old right was subverted to become a propaganda branch of the state, not just recently but fifty years ago. So Rothbard's account is not only a critical historical document; it also has explosive explanatory power.

History

Americas

LARGE PRINT EDITION! More at LargePrintLiberty.com 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 the even the slightest temptation to invoke the state as a solution to any social or economic problem. It is ultimate manual for completely de-mystifying the myth of the state.This beautiful new edition is the first to truly do it justice.The Rothbardian claim is perhaps the most radical made in the history of political economy. But how can it be convincing? What must an author do to back up this claim?Here is what Rothbard did. He systematically classified every form of intervention into three types: autistic, binary, and triangular. Within each category, he discusses their ill effects, and does so with precision and insight. Free market scholars have been using and expanding on his insights for years. But in this book we have the source.He is like an expert house inspector examining the edifice of the state. Brick by brick, nail by nail, he shows that it is fundamentally unsound. The seeming edifice is really a house of cards.This book is the ideal answer to the person who says: "I favor free markets but…." and then proceeds to advocate some intervention they believe to be helpful. Rothbard shows that it is not helpful, no matter what it is. And he provides the logic for understanding how all forms of government aggression make society worse off.Some of the topics covered: price control, compulsory cartels, licenses, quality standards, safety precautions, tariffs, child labor laws, conscription, subsidies to unemployment, subsidies to employment, base-point pricing bans, conservation, antitrust laws, patents, public utilities, eminent domain, wage taxes, corporate taxes, capital gains taxes, property taxes, progressive taxes, the single tax, government ownership of anything, and all forms of government spending.Within each category he lays out the rationale for why the measure must fail.

Power & Market: Government and the Economy

Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought (Complete, 1965-1968)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Murray Rothbard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Murray Rothbard

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Murray Rothbard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Power and Market: Government and the Economy

Power and Market: Government and the Economy

Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty

An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (2 Vol. Set)

Anatomy of the State

Austrian School Business Cycle Theory

For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto

The Betrayal of the American Right

Power & Market: Government and the Economy

Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought (Complete, 1965-1968)