WEBVTT NOTE Murray Rothbard and 'Liberty Magazine' 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.800 Murray Rothbard was at the forefront of the libertarian movement for over 40 years. 2 00:00:06.800 --> 00:00:13.900 During this time, he made and broke many alliances and wrote for every conceivable libertarian publication, 3 00:00:13.900 --> 00:00:16.200 including some of his own. 4 00:00:16.200 --> 00:00:22.300 One publication he was associated with from the beginning of its print run was Liberty Magazine. 5 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:27.400 This paper examines the relationship of Murray Rothbard to Liberty Magazine, 6 00:00:27.400 --> 00:00:35.160 where he began as an editor and writer and later became an object of criticism and ridicule. 7 00:00:35.160 --> 00:00:39.320 I don't know what I could possibly say about Murray Rothbard that has not been said about 8 00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:46.840 him at the Mises Institute for the past 17 years since his death in 1995. 9 00:00:46.840 --> 00:00:54.160 He was a student of Ludwig von Mises, a prolific author, an inspiring teacher, a revisionist 10 00:00:54.160 --> 00:01:00.760 Most Historian, an astute political observer, the most comprehensive system builder within 11 00:01:00.760 --> 00:01:08.600 Austrian economics, a libertarian icon, and the greatest enemy the state ever had. 12 00:01:08.600 --> 00:01:15.540 In the words of his greatest student, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Rothbard has remained beyond his death 13 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:22.080 without doubt the most important and highly respected intellectual authority within the 14 00:01:22.080 --> 00:01:25.040 and the entire libertarian movement. 15 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:31.720 And to this day, his rationalist, axiomatic, deductive, austro-libertarianism provides 16 00:01:31.720 --> 00:01:37.920 the intellectual benchmark in reference to which not only everyone and everything within 17 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:45.960 libertarianism is defined, but increasingly everyone and everything in American politics. 18 00:01:45.960 --> 00:01:52.080 The print edition of Liberty magazine was published from August 1987 until December 19 00:01:52.080 --> 00:01:53.080 2010. 20 00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:56.780 It is now available only online. 21 00:01:56.780 --> 00:02:02.240 Each of the back issues is now posted online at the Liberty website and also at the Mises 22 00:02:02.240 --> 00:02:04.700 Institute website. 23 00:02:04.700 --> 00:02:11.400 Liberty began as kind of a bi-monthly, consistently publishing six issues a year. 24 00:02:11.400 --> 00:02:18.800 Starting in 1999, Liberty generally appeared monthly. There were a total of 208 issues 25 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:26.720 of the printed magazine produced. The founder, publisher and editor of Liberty was R.W. Bradford, 26 00:02:26.720 --> 00:02:33.560 who also wrote under two pen names. According to an editorial titled Why Liberty, that appeared 27 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:40.480 in the first issue, Liberty was to be a journal produced by libertarians for libertarians, 28 00:02:40.480 --> 00:02:46.680 a journal with the space and inclination to discuss issues that interest libertarians written 29 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:53.520 from an apologetically libertarian perspective. The original associate editors were Murray 30 00:02:53.520 --> 00:03:02.520 Rothbard, Douglas Casey, Stephen Cox and Ross Overbeek. Rothbard, whom Bradford says didn't 31 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:07.920 know me from Adam, was the second person he contacted after his old friend from college, 32 00:03:07.920 --> 00:03:10.020 Steven Cox. 33 00:03:10.020 --> 00:03:15.880 Bradford says in his fifth anniversary retrospective, How We Started Liberty, that Rothbard was 34 00:03:15.880 --> 00:03:19.160 immediately interested and encouraging. 35 00:03:19.160 --> 00:03:24.480 Bradford also described Rothbard as the best known of those involved in liberty, perhaps 36 00:03:24.480 --> 00:03:29.920 the most influential living participant in the libertarian movement, and a first-rate 37 00:03:29.920 --> 00:03:36.400 writer who devoted incredible energy to shaping libertarian opinion. 38 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:42.580 The editors settled on the name Liberty mostly by default, since the other names they considered 39 00:03:42.580 --> 00:03:49.380 seemed too cute or insufficiently descriptive. Future senior editors of Liberty included 40 00:03:49.380 --> 00:03:55.920 Carl Hess, John Hospers, and Harry Brown. Its many contributing editors over the years 41 00:03:55.920 --> 00:04:02.920 have included such libertarian giants as Ralph Raco, Sheldon Richmond, and Robert Higgs. 42 00:04:02.920 --> 00:04:09.880 Rothbard's last issue as a senior editor was that dated March 1990. After Bradford's 43 00:04:09.880 --> 00:04:15.720 death in December of 2005, Stephen Cox assumed the position of editor beginning with the 44 00:04:15.720 --> 00:04:23.260 March 2006 issue. I first noticed Liberty sometime in the late 1990s on the magazine 45 00:04:23.260 --> 00:04:29.960 rack at my local Books-a-Million bookstore. I hesitated to subscribe after that because 46 00:04:29.960 --> 00:04:35.380 Because the subscription appeals I received in the mail attacked by name someone I knew 47 00:04:35.380 --> 00:04:40.140 and greatly respected, named Lew Rockwell. 48 00:04:40.140 --> 00:04:44.800 After occasionally perusing Liberty for a few years at the magazine rack, I wrote my 49 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:52.320 first article for Liberty in 2007, the second in 2009, and some short reflections during 50 00:04:52.320 --> 00:04:54.720 and after that time. 51 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:59.940 After all the back issues of Liberty were posted online a year or so ago, I began looking 52 00:04:59.940 --> 00:05:06.980 through them, first to help fix the Liberty Archive on the Mises website, and then because 53 00:05:06.980 --> 00:05:12.900 of the great treasure trove of information about libertarianism and the libertarian movement 54 00:05:12.900 --> 00:05:14.820 that they contain. 55 00:05:14.820 --> 00:05:19.820 If you really want to get an insight into the history of libertarianism, and especially 56 00:05:19.820 --> 00:05:26.820 the disputes and controversies among libertarians, read the back issues of Liberty Magazine. 57 00:05:26.820 --> 00:05:33.040 You may not like some of the things you read, like Rothbard modeled his approach to ideology 58 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:40.100 and social change on those of Marx and Lenin, or one of the reasons I never became an acolyte 59 00:05:40.100 --> 00:05:45.780 of Murray Rothbard was his notion that he was Lenin and we had to obey. 60 00:05:45.780 --> 00:05:50.520 But in spite of that, you will learn a great deal about libertarianism. 61 00:05:50.520 --> 00:05:54.380 One thing I quickly noticed in my reading of the Liberty Back issues was the number 62 00:05:54.380 --> 00:05:59.600 A number of references to Murray Rothbard, not just when he served as an editor, but 63 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:07.040 after his departure from the magazine in 1990 and even after his death in 1995. 64 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:12.460 Although Rothbard was only associated with Liberty for 16 issues, he is actually mentioned 65 00:06:12.460 --> 00:06:19.340 in some way in 176 of the 208 issues that were printed. 66 00:06:19.340 --> 00:06:23.120 His enemies regularly invoke his name. 67 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:28.040 Rothbard was certainly the most polarizing figure to ever be mentioned in Liberty. 68 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:32.760 We can see this in a couple of letters to the editor that appeared after the publication 69 00:06:32.760 --> 00:06:40.280 of Rothbard's, in the words of R.W. Bradford, delightfully vicious article, Ronald Reagan 70 00:06:40.280 --> 00:06:45.560 and Autopsy, that appeared in the March 1989 issue. 71 00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:50.860 Here's the first letter, cancel my subscription to Liberty immediately. 72 00:06:50.860 --> 00:06:56.820 I don't want another issue. Reason? That diatribe against Ronald Reagan by Murray Rothbard 73 00:06:56.820 --> 00:07:03.500 was the most disgusting thing I've ever read. Now, contrast that with this. Kudos for Murray. 74 00:07:03.500 --> 00:07:09.260 Though I've been a critic of Murray from time to time, I think his greatest article to date 75 00:07:09.260 --> 00:07:16.460 is Ronald Reagan and Autopsy. It was pure Rothbardian excellence. Murray Rothbard is 76 00:07:16.460 --> 00:07:24.300 is mentioned 2,632 times in Liberty Magazine. I know because I counted, documented, and 77 00:07:24.300 --> 00:07:31.020 examined each and every occurrence of Rothbard, Murray Rothbard, Murray N. Rothbard, Murray 78 00:07:31.020 --> 00:07:41.140 Newton Rothbard, M.N.R., Rothbards, Rothbardian, Rothbardians, and just plain Murray. I might 79 00:07:41.140 --> 00:07:45.460 I might have missed a few references to Rothbard when he was just referred to by the pronouns 80 00:07:45.460 --> 00:07:51.580 he, his, or him, but I think I got all the direct references. 81 00:07:51.580 --> 00:07:55.820 Rothbard is mentioned in every conceivable place in the magazine, on the cover, in the 82 00:07:55.820 --> 00:08:01.740 table of contents, in footnotes, in articles he wrote, in articles written by others, in 83 00:08:01.740 --> 00:08:08.140 reflections he wrote, in reflections written by others, in ads for books by Rothbard or 84 00:08:08.140 --> 00:08:13.940 for Others or for Back Issues of Liberty, in Letters to the Editor, in indexes, in 85 00:08:13.940 --> 00:08:19.220 book notes, in book reviews he wrote, and reviews of books by him, books about him, 86 00:08:19.220 --> 00:08:22.760 and books unrelated to him in any way. 87 00:08:22.760 --> 00:08:28.660 All seemed well at the beginning of liberty in August of 1987. 88 00:08:28.660 --> 00:08:34.700 Rothbard had given Bradford permission to publish and use as a subscription premium 89 00:08:34.700 --> 00:08:42.140 his essay called The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult. Writing on Liberty's 5th anniversary, 90 00:08:42.140 --> 00:08:49.060 two years after Rothbard's departure, Bradford remarked about the bonus given to subscribers. 91 00:08:49.060 --> 00:08:54.460 I have no doubt that it was an important factor in goosing the response to our advertising. 92 00:08:54.460 --> 00:08:59.820 We continue to use it from time to time and it still polls. Beginning with the November 93 00:08:59.820 --> 00:09:08.060 For 1988 issue, Rothbard's essay was instead offered for sale for $4. This continued off 94 00:09:08.060 --> 00:09:14.100 and on for the next 20 years. Another way that Rothbard endured in a subtle way throughout 95 00:09:14.100 --> 00:09:20.060 the pages of Liberty was in regular ads for back issues of the magazine that mentioned 96 00:09:20.060 --> 00:09:26.220 the title and author of articles in each issue. Rothbard's name appeared on the cover of 97 00:09:26.220 --> 00:09:34.420 the first issue to promote his article endorsing Ron Paul for President in the 1988 election. 98 00:09:34.420 --> 00:09:39.420 Of the 16 issues of liberty that Rothbard was associated with, his name graced the cover 99 00:09:39.420 --> 00:09:46.620 of 13 of them. After his departure from the magazine, Rothbard appeared on two more covers. 100 00:09:46.620 --> 00:09:52.180 The first was in the March 1995 issue that contained a tribute to him upon the occasion 101 00:09:52.180 --> 00:09:59.100 of His Death, and the second was in 2004, when Liberty reprinted his Ronald Reagan and 102 00:09:59.100 --> 00:10:06.220 Autopsy as part of a symposium on Reagan after the former president's death. 103 00:10:06.220 --> 00:10:12.380 During his 16-issue period of association, Rothbard authored 11 full-length articles, 104 00:10:12.380 --> 00:10:19.460 22 short reflections, 5 interviews or editorial commentaries, 1 book notes column and 1 book 105 00:10:19.460 --> 00:10:20.900 review. 106 00:10:20.900 --> 00:10:25.300 Early in the May 1988 issue, did Rothbard not have something he wrote appear, although 107 00:10:25.300 --> 00:10:31.440 he's mentioned 35 times by others in that issue. Ads for the Center for Libertarian 108 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:36.740 Studies appeared in the first two issues of Liberty, followed by ads for the Mises Institute 109 00:10:36.740 --> 00:10:44.360 in the next 14, and an ad for the Rothbard-Rockwell Report in the March 1990 issue, the final 110 00:10:44.360 --> 00:10:47.880 issue that Rothbard was associated with. 111 00:10:47.880 --> 00:10:53.700 In 1988, Rothbard talked to an interviewer about liberty. The libertarian movement was 112 00:10:53.700 --> 00:10:59.160 beginning to crumble before liberty was founded. Everybody was so concerned with talking to 113 00:10:59.160 --> 00:11:04.280 the outside, to Democrats or Republicans or whoever, that we forgot to develop our own 114 00:11:04.280 --> 00:11:10.120 thinking, our own ideology, our own point of view. This does not mean that there was 115 00:11:10.120 --> 00:11:15.840 no dissent from Rothbard's views in the pages of liberty. But aside from the denigration 116 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:29.840 There were only three criticisms of Rothbard by name to appear in the magazine when he served as an editor, and only one of them was a whole article devoted to rebutting something he had written. 117 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:36.840 David Brown criticized Rothbard in a 1988 piece over his hostility to Rand. 118 00:11:36.840 --> 00:11:42.840 Jeffrey Friedman criticized Rothbard's style of libertarian thought in the May 1989 issue. 119 00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:48.260 issue, also in that issue is a rebuttal by an environmentalist to an earlier piece by 120 00:11:48.260 --> 00:11:56.640 Rothbard on environmentalism. Rothbard and Bradford replied to Friedman in the next issue. 121 00:11:56.640 --> 00:12:02.800 Here Bradford defended Rothbard against Friedman's charge that he has worked to make libertarianism 122 00:12:02.800 --> 00:12:09.920 into a narrow dogmatic philosophy. In Bradford's analysis, he sheds some light on Rothbard's 123 00:12:09.920 --> 00:12:14.080 Early Relationship with Liberty and its editor. 124 00:12:14.080 --> 00:12:18.280 Rothbard has contributed both his advice and writing freely. 125 00:12:18.280 --> 00:12:22.820 Written a letter soliciting subscriptions, helped us recruit writers and made frequent 126 00:12:22.820 --> 00:12:25.220 editorial suggestions. 127 00:12:25.220 --> 00:12:29.840 All this he has done on behalf of a journal that explicitly opens itself to the full range 128 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:35.120 of libertarian thinking, including frequent criticisms of many of his own passionately 129 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:37.000 held beliefs. 130 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:41.880 On more than one occasion he has told me that some essay or another that we have published, 131 00:12:41.880 --> 00:12:47.780 including some written by me, have infuriated him. He has criticized my editorial judgment 132 00:12:47.780 --> 00:12:54.780 once or twice, but on no occasion has he suggested that we change Liberty's open editorial policy. 133 00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:02.600 In a September 1989 issue, Bradford favorably reviewed Man Economy and Liberty. The only 134 00:13:02.600 --> 00:13:06.700 The only controversy between Rothbard and Bradford during this time appears to be over 135 00:13:06.700 --> 00:13:12.400 Rothbard's steadfast adherence to the non-aggression principle. 136 00:13:12.400 --> 00:13:17.080 Bradford had written an article in the second issue of Liberty in defense of Robert Nozick 137 00:13:17.080 --> 00:13:22.960 in which he criticized moralistic libertarians and a libertarianism based on the morality 138 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:26.120 of the non-initiation of force. 139 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:28.940 Rothbard replied in the next issue. 140 00:13:28.940 --> 00:13:33.620 Bradford responded to Rothbard's reply and to the criticism of others in the following 141 00:13:33.620 --> 00:13:40.020 issue. There he accused Rothbard of not addressing his central argument that the non-aggression 142 00:13:40.020 --> 00:13:48.280 axiom is unsatisfactory as a basis for libertarian theory. This was followed by Bradford's article 143 00:13:48.280 --> 00:13:55.880 The Two Libertarians in the May 1988 issue. There he abdicated a consequentialist libertarian 144 00:13:55.880 --> 00:14:01.480 and Position, contrary to Rothbard's moralist libertarianism. 145 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:06.680 Although a major rebuttal to this was penned by Sheldon Richmond in the September 1988 146 00:14:06.680 --> 00:14:11.740 issue, there was nothing forthcoming from Rothbard. 147 00:14:11.740 --> 00:14:17.760 This difference of opinion was not personal, for as Bradford explained in his 10th anniversary 148 00:14:17.760 --> 00:14:24.180 editorial in the September 1997 issue, from the start Murray understood that liberty would 149 00:14:24.180 --> 00:14:36.500 At my first meeting with him, I warned him of my disagreement with much of his political 150 00:14:36.500 --> 00:14:41.740 theory and suggested that I might publicly disagree with him from time to time. This 151 00:14:41.740 --> 00:14:47.320 he accepted joyously. He always shared his pungent and powerful opinions and cheerfully 152 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:51.920 accepted the fact that sometimes his advice was not followed. 153 00:14:51.920 --> 00:14:58.400 By 1990, though, things between Bradford and Rockford were not going so well. 154 00:14:58.400 --> 00:15:03.640 In his 10th anniversary editorial, Bradford maintains that Rothbard told him as early 155 00:15:03.640 --> 00:15:10.240 as 1987 that he was thinking of abandoning libertarianism in favor of the political right. 156 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:17.720 And in 1999, says Bradford, Rothbard had decided, along with Lew Rockwell, to join his erstwhile 157 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:24.360 and all enemies, the conservatives, after going through a phase as a paleo-libertarian. 158 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:29.200 Bradford insisted that his relationship with Rothbard during this time remained cordial 159 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:33.080 and that he continued to contribute to each issue. 160 00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:39.700 But after the publication of Rockwell's A Paleo-Libertarian Manifesto in Liberty's 161 00:15:39.700 --> 00:15:45.460 January 1990 issue, things went downhill. 162 00:15:45.460 --> 00:15:50.380 Rothbard asserts that he received a fax from Rockwell telling him that Murray had decided 163 00:15:50.380 --> 00:15:54.940 that he wouldn't be writing for Liberty in the future and would like to resign his position 164 00:15:54.940 --> 00:15:56.960 as senior editor. 165 00:15:56.960 --> 00:16:02.660 Even so, Rothbard claims that his relationship with Rockbard still remained cordial, even 166 00:16:02.660 --> 00:16:07.240 as his relationship with Rockwell had deteriorated. 167 00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:12.500 Between this time and Rothbard's death in 1995, Rothbard maintains that he and Murray 168 00:16:12.500 --> 00:16:18.260 spoke occasionally, even though he heard from time to time that Rothbard had denounced him 169 00:16:18.260 --> 00:16:21.260 in the pages of his newsletter. 170 00:16:21.260 --> 00:16:26.620 Because of the lack of time, I can only briefly mention some of the men and instances and 171 00:16:26.620 --> 00:16:30.580 refer you to my full paper when it is published. 172 00:16:30.580 --> 00:16:36.620 Rothbard was criticized most viciously in the pages of Liberty by David Ramsey Steele 173 00:16:36.620 --> 00:16:39.100 and Mark Skousen. 174 00:16:39.100 --> 00:16:43.220 Some of the criticisms are so ludicrous that I don't think I could read them through 175 00:16:43.220 --> 00:16:45.380 without laughing. 176 00:16:45.380 --> 00:16:50.900 Like Steele's statement that Rothbard wasn't an outstanding thinker and made no lasting 177 00:16:50.900 --> 00:16:54.540 contributions to any branch of thought. 178 00:16:54.540 --> 00:16:59.900 Or Skousen's claim that today Friedman's influence is ten times Rothbard's. 179 00:16:59.900 --> 00:17:06.980 Well, at least he didn't say, like Don Boudreau recently did, that Rothbard wasn't one-one-hundredth 180 00:17:06.980 --> 00:17:15.180 In light of the current events regarding the Cato Institute, I should also mention that 181 00:17:15.180 --> 00:17:22.600 in an interview with Cato's President, Ed Crane, in Liberty's November 1990 issue, 182 00:17:22.600 --> 00:17:28.280 Rothbard's name comes up quite a bit. Crane faulted Rothbard for the unwillingness to pay 183 00:17:28.280 --> 00:17:36.040 any respect to people who disagreed with him. He also charges Rothbard with intolerance. 184 00:17:36.040 --> 00:17:41.680 There has always been a kind of, I don't want to say racist, a very intolerant attitude 185 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:47.860 among people like Rothbard and Rockwell on ethnic and cultural matters and even on the 186 00:17:47.860 --> 00:17:51.120 question of sexual diversity. 187 00:17:51.120 --> 00:17:56.680 Crane concludes about Rothbard, I'm a little disappointed that Murray seems to be so motivated 188 00:17:56.680 --> 00:18:00.080 by hatred of all the enemies that he sees out there. 189 00:18:00.080 --> 00:18:04.640 I don't advise anyone to get on his wrong side. 190 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:12.000 After Murray died in January 1995, there appeared a tribute to him in Liberty's March 1995 191 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:18.960 issue consisting of short remembrances by Gary North, Ron Paul, Sheldon Richmond, Robert 192 00:18:18.960 --> 00:18:22.240 Higgs and, of course, Liberty's editor. 193 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:28.800 However, Bradford's assessment of Rothbard's influence was premature. 194 00:18:28.800 --> 00:18:34.560 In the end, this is Bradford, his influence on libertarians waned, partly because of his 195 00:18:34.560 --> 00:18:39.460 his apparent retreat toward his old nemesis, the political right, partly because of his 196 00:18:39.460 --> 00:18:45.800 increasing relish for ideological infighting, and partly because a new generation of libertarian 197 00:18:45.800 --> 00:18:50.780 intellectuals found his brand of libertarianism too simplistic. 198 00:18:50.780 --> 00:18:59.020 I think that now, in 2012, 17 years after Rothbard's death, that his influence is stronger 199 00:18:59.020 --> 00:19:06.020 and it is the influence on libertarians of R.W. Bradford that has waned.