Murray Rothbard

Murray Rothbard
Rothbard in the 1970s
Born
Murray Newton Rothbard

(1926-03-02)March 2, 1926
New York City, U.S.
DiedJanuary 7, 1995(1995-01-07) (aged 68)
New York City, U.S.
Resting placeOakwood Cemetery, Unionville, Virginia, U.S.
Organization(s)Center for Libertarian Studies
Cato Institute
Mises Institute
Political partyRepublican (before 1952)
Peace and Freedom (1968–1974)
Libertarian (1974–1989)
MovementLibertarianism in the United States
Academic background
EducationColumbia University (BA, MA, PhD)
Influences
Academic work
DisciplineEconomic history
Ethics
History of economic thought
Legal philosophy
Political philosophy
Praxeology
School or traditionAustrian School
InstitutionsBrooklyn Polytechnic Institute
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Notable studentsHans-Hermann Hoppe
Samuel Edward Konkin III
Walter Block
Notable ideasAnarcho-capitalism
Historical revisionism
Paleolibertarianism
Left-Libertarianism
Right-libertarianism
Title-transfer theory of contract

Murray Newton Rothbard (/ˈrɒθbɑːrd/; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist[1] of the Austrian School,[2][3][4] economic historian,[5][6] political theorist,[7] and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian movement, particularly its right-wing strands, and was a founder and leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism.[8][9][10] He wrote over twenty books on political theory, history, economics, and other subjects.[8]

Rothbard argued that all services provided by the "monopoly system of the corporate state"[11] could be provided more efficiently by the private sector and wrote that the state is "the organization of robbery systematized and writ large".[12][13][14] He called fractional-reserve banking a form of fraud and opposed central banking.[15] He categorically opposed all military, political, and economic interventionism in the affairs of other nations.[16][17]

Rothbard led a "fringe existence" in academia, as described by his protégé Hans-Hermann Hoppe.[18] Rothbard rejected mainstream economic methodologies and instead embraced the praxeology of Ludwig von Mises. Rothbard taught economics at a Wall Street division of New York University, later at Brooklyn Polytechnic, and after 1986 in an endowed position at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.[7][19] Partnering with the oil billionaire Charles Koch, Rothbard was a founder of the Cato Institute and the Center for Libertarian Studies in the 1970s.[8] He broke with Cato and Koch, and in 1982 joined Lew Rockwell and Burton Blumert to establish the Mises Institute in Alabama.[4][20][21]

Rothbard opposed egalitarianism and the civil rights movement, and blamed women's voting and activism for the growth of the welfare state.[9][22][23] Later in his career, Rothbard advocated a libertarian alliance with paleoconservatism (which he called paleolibertarianism), favoring right-wing populism and describing David Duke and Joseph McCarthy as models for political strategy.[24][25][22][26] In the 2010s, he received renewed attention as an influence on the alt-right.[9][27][28]

  1. ^ Stout, David (January 11, 1995). "Obituary: Murray N. Rothbard, Economist And Free-Market Exponent, 68". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 5, 2019. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  2. ^ Lewis, David Charles (2006). "Rothbard, Murray Newton (1926–1995)". In Ross Emmett (ed.). Biographical Dictionary of American Economists. Thoemmes. ISBN 978-1-84371112-4.
  3. ^ Heathe, F. Eugene (2007). "Anarchism". Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society. Sage. p. 89.
  4. ^ a b Ronald Hamowy, ed., 2008, The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, Cato Institute, Sage, ISBN 1-41296580-2, p. 62: "a leading economist of the Austrian school"; pp. 11, 365, 458: "Austrian economist".
  5. ^ Bessner, Daniel (December 8, 2014). "Murray Rothbard, Political Strategy, and the Making of Modern libertarianism". Intellectual History Review. 24 (4): 441–56. doi:10.1080/17496977.2014.970371. S2CID 143391240.
  6. ^ Matthews, Peter Hans; Ortmann, Andreas (July 2002). "An Austrian (Mis)Reads Adam Smith: A Critique of Rothbard as Intellectual Historian". Review of Political Economy. 14 (3): 379–92. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.535.510. doi:10.1080/09538250220147895. S2CID 39872371.
  7. ^ a b Raimondo, Justin (2000). An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-61592-239-0.
  8. ^ a b c Doherty, Brian (2008). "Rothbard, Murray (1926–1995)". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. pp. 10, 441–43. ISBN 978-1-4129-6580-4.
  9. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference :11 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Newman, Saul (2010). The Politics of Postanarchism. Edinburgh University Press. p. 43. doi:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748634958.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-7486-3495-8.
  11. ^ Rothbard, Murray. "The Great Society: A Libertarian Critique" Archived June 18, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Lew Rockwell.
  12. ^ Rothbard, Murray (1997). "The Myth of Neutral Taxation". The Logic of Action Two: Applications and Criticism from the Austrian School. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. p. 67. ISBN 978-1858985701. First published in The Cato Journal, Fall 1981.
  13. ^ Hoppe, Hans-Hermann (1998). "Introduction". The Ethics of Liberty. Ludwig von Mises Institute. Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
  14. ^ Rothbard, Murray (2002) [1982]. "The Nature of the State". The Ethics of Liberty. New York: New York University Press. pp. 167–68. ISBN 978-0814775066. Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
  15. ^ Rothbard, Murray (2008) [1983]. The Mystery of Banking (2nd ed.). Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute. pp. 111–13. ISBN 978-1933550282. Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
  16. ^ Casey, Gerard (2010). Meadowcroft, John (ed.). Murray Rothbard. Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers. Vol. 15. London: Continuum. pp. 4–5, 129. ISBN 978-1441142092.
  17. ^ Klausner, Manuel S. (Feb. 1973). "The New Isolationism." An Interview with Murray Rothbard and Leonard Liggio. Reason. Full issue. Archived September 13, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference :9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference :10 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Hawley 2016, p. 128-129, 164.
  21. ^ Wasserman, Janek (2019). Marginal Revolutionaries: How Austrian economists fought the war of ideas. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 257. ISBN 978-0-300-24917-0.
  22. ^ a b Hawley, George (2016). Right-wing critics of American conservatism. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. pp. 159–167. ISBN 978-0-7006-2193-4.
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Sanchez, Julian; Weigel, David (January 16, 2008). "Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters?". Reason. Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  25. ^ Zwolinski, Matt; Tomasi, John (2023). The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism. United Kingdom: Princeton University Press. p. 244. ISBN 978-0-691-15554-8.
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference :15 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ^ Slobodian, Quinn (November 2019). "Anti-'68ers and the Racist-Libertarian Alliance: How a Schism among Austrian School Neoliberals Helped Spawn the Alt Right". Cultural Politics. 15 (3): 372–86. doi:10.1215/17432197-7725521. S2CID 213717695.
  28. ^ Cooper, Melinda (November 2021). "The Alt-Right: Neoliberalism, Libertarianism and the Fascist Temptation". Theory, Culture & Society. 38 (6): 29–50. doi:10.1177/0263276421999446. S2CID 233528701.
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