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Source link: http://blog.mises.org/2313/what-made-rothbard-great/

What Made Rothbard Great

August 3, 2004 by

Gary North shows how Rothbard always had the ability to go to the central issue in a debate. It was as if he was just pushing off the extremities to get to that core issue. Murray was a master of simply, publicly, either decapitating or disemboweling the opponent. They never liked to come back twice. He wrote clearly. He wrote continuously. He wrote for almost anyone who would give him an opportunity to put an idea in print. [Full Article]

{ 10 comments }

George Giles August 3, 2004 at 9:30 am

Rothbard, Mises, and Hayek are contemporary Isaac Newtons’: they stare into the dark, fathomless abyss, and bring back light. Order proceeds from chaos. Their intellectual achievement will be mankinds treasure in the future. Prophets in the wilderness.

Dennis Sperduto August 3, 2004 at 10:07 am

We should all be eternally grateful to Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard for their efforts to safeguard and advance rational economic science, especially considering the great professional adversity they managed to overcome. Mises and Rothbard were truly outstanding scholars and noble human beings, and should be exemplars to us all. An understanding of economics is essential to the preservation and advancement of our civilization, which is based on the extensive division of labor and monetary calculation.

Sad Truth August 3, 2004 at 10:47 am

It would be more helpful to Mr. Rothbard’s legacy to critique him now and again, rather than treat him like an unfailable demigod.

The fact his rather cultish followers put him in the sky with Zeus and Odin is one reason Rothbard will never be taken as seriously as Hayek and Mises. Sadly, his legacy is simliar to Ms. Rand’s – a demigod above critisim to followers, not to be taken seriously by non-cultists. He will be forgotten by most, which is too bad as he did make several important contributions.

David Farrer August 3, 2004 at 11:40 am

What made Rothbard great is that he saved me £60,000.

In 1990 I invested in a “with profits” pension policy with Standard Life Assurance. Three years ago I realised that half of the policy’s value was in stock market related bonuses that could in theory be taken away. Although my broker thought that I was a bit paranoid I had read my Rothbard (and Mises). I arranged for the policy to be transferred from the “with profits” fund to a cash fund, thus crystallising the accrued bonuses. Since then Standard has cut its bonuses 6 times. By switching, I saved half of my pension plan. All those nights reading Austrian economists paid off big time.

Dennis Sperduto August 3, 2004 at 11:41 am

Sad Truth,

Sticking to economics only, I believe that Rothbard was sqaurely in the Austrian/praxeological tradtition developed by Mises. The lack of a more widespread acceptance of the Mises/Rothbard “branch” of Austrian economics, is, in my opinion, not the result of a “cult” following problem, but rather due to its methodology and logically derived policy conclusions not being what the mainstream economics profession and people in general want to hear. In many areas, despite the veracity of their arguments, Mises and Rothbard staked out quite unpopular positions.

Walt Byars August 3, 2004 at 12:46 pm

link

Where did Rothbard go wrong? He emphasized two streams in American Church history in the nineteenth century: liturgical and pietistic. The liturgicals
— Lutherans and Roman Catholics (and Episcopalians, who Rothbard failed to mention) — were not set on changing the world. The pietists were,he said. He would have made his case far more persuasive had he followed the eschatological trail a little further down the path. It was not that members of liturgical churches were, in Rothbard’s memorable phrase, “beer drinkers all.”112 Rather, it was that the liturgical or “high church” denominations were amillennial. Amillennialism sees no possibility of establishing a culturewide
kingdom of God in history through politics or any other means. Premillennialism
does not, either. This leaves postmillennialism. There were two versions in 1900: the social gospel (Progressive / liberal) and the Whig (Old School Presbyterian / Calvinist). Of the Old School Presbyterian postmillennialists,
nothing could be further from the truth than Rothbard’s summary: “Postmillennialists have therefore tended to be statists . . .”113 They were, in fact, the closest thing to libertarians in American ecclesiastical history.

Hardly cultish praise, and written by the author of this article.

Jake August 3, 2004 at 12:51 pm

I am an sophomore undergraduate and am wondering where the best place to find some works of Rothbard and Mises without paying an arm and a leg. Otherwise, I will default at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

Walt Byars August 3, 2004 at 1:16 pm

Laissez- Faire books would be your best bet.

Michael Shindler August 3, 2004 at 2:36 pm

Jake,

The Mises Institute has several of texts by Mises and Rothbard available online, free of charge. See, for instance, the Austrian Study Guide [1].

If you would rather read a physical copy (as I do), the Mises Institute’s Catalog has some great deals as well [2].

You might also want to check your school’s library. I remember finding a few books by Austrians at my school library a year or so ago.

[1] [ link ]

[2] [ link ]

Steven Kane August 3, 2004 at 3:20 pm

From Sad Truth: “The fact his rather cultish followers put him in the sky with Zeus and Odin is one reason Rothbard will never be taken as seriously as Hayek and Mises. Sadly, his legacy is simliar to Ms. Rand’s – a demigod above critisim to followers, not to be taken seriously by non-cultists. He will be forgotten by most, which is too bad as he did make several important contributions.”

Speaking of Ayn Rand, Rothbard had initially befriended her, but then had a big falling out. Later on he wrote an essay called “The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult.” Needless to say Rothbard would hate to be compared to Ayn Rand. Here is the essay from LewRockwell.com:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard23.html

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