The Essential Rothbard - Ludwig von Mises Institute

122 The Essential Rothbard
the range of authors discussed is immense. Rothbard clearly
makes the point that economics is the product of communities
of scholars, not simply a small group of pioneering
thinkers . . . his reading is vast, and there is much to be
learned from him. 318
Backhouse disagrees with Rothbard’s Austrian perspective; nevertheless,
he concludes that “it is nonetheless, an exciting, even brilliant,
book.” 319
FOLLOWERS AND INFLUENCE
He taught at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute from the mid-
1960s to the mid-1980s; from 1986 to his death on January
7, 1995, he was S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of
Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Rothbard was closely associated with the Ludwig von Mises
Institute from its founding in 1982 by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
This organization became the main vehicle for the promotion of
his ideas, and he served as its Academic Vice-President. Most of
the academics who have endeavored to continue Rothbard’s work
have been associated with the Mises Institute. Among economists,
Joseph T. Salerno has carried out important research on the history
of the Austrian School. He has made clear the distinctive
nature of the economics of Mises and Rothbard and has also done
pioneering work on nineteenth-century bullionist economists.
Hans-Hermann Hoppe has extended Rothbard’s work in political
philosophy with a much-discussed argument for libertarian rights
that Rothbard admired. Peter G. Klein has creatively applied Misesian
and Rothbardian insights to industrial organization. Walter
Block, the most prolific of Rothbard’s followers, has, among many
318 History of Economic Thought Newsletter 56 (Summer, 1996): 20.
319 Classical Economics, p. 21.