The Essential Rothbard - Ludwig von Mises Institute

The Essential Rothbard 103
Libertarian?” 275 he asks the most basic question of all: why should
libertarian theorizing matter to us? The answer cannot be found,
he contends, in the narrow pursuit of individual advantage. Only
the love of justice suffices.
In an effort to widen the influence of libertarian thought in the
academic world, Rothbard founded the Journal of Libertarian Studies
in 1977. The journal began auspiciously with a symposium on
Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Down to the present, it
has remained the most important journal hospitable to libertarian
ideas.
Rothbard established in 1987 another journal, the Review of
Austrian Economics, to provide a scholarly venue for economists and
others interested in Austrian theory. It too is the key journal in its
area of specialty. It has continued to the present, after 1997 under
the new name Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.
In his comments on current events, Rothbard displayed an
amazing ability to digest vast quantities of information on whatever
subject interested him. Whether, e.g., the question was competing
factions in Afghanistan or the sources of investment in oil
in the Middle East, he would always have the relevant data at his
command. A sample of his columns, taken from the Rothbard-Rockwell
Report, is available in The Irrepressible Rothbard. 276
This indispensable collection contains a key statement of Rothbard’s
views on foreign policy, which explain in more detail the
rationale for the noninterventionist policy we have already seen he
favors. In a few paragraphs, he eviscerates the prevailing doctrine
of twentieth-century American foreign policy.
According to the accepted picture, totalitarian powers twice
threatened America during the twentieth century. Germany, under
the maniacal leadership of Hitler, aimed at world conquest. After
275
“Why Be Libertarian?” in ibid., pp. 239–45.
276
Llewellyn H., Rockwell, Jr., ed., The Irrepressible Rothbard (Auburn,
Ala.: Mises Institute, 2000).