The Essential Rothbard - Ludwig von Mises Institute

The Essential Rothbard 55
The book’s narrative is a complex one, and it by no means
reduces to an account of the vicissitudes of the House of Morgan.
A rival banking group, consisting most importantly of Rockefeller
interests, challenged it for supremacy. For Rothbard, the New
Deal can best be viewed as the victory of the Rockefeller group; he
cites in this connection the political scientist Thomas Ferguson.
Although the Morgans recovered some of their influence after the
mid-1930s, they henceforward occupied a subordinate position.
Throughout the book, Rothbard pursues with tenacity a biographical
method of analysis that stresses the ties of influential figures
to central financial groups, such as the Morgans. In his intricate
tracing of patrons and clients, Rothbard brings to mind the
great works of Ronald Syme and Lewis Namier. But Rothbard has
the advantage over these renowned historians in that he does not
restrict himself to the amassing of biographical detail. He has in
addition a carefully worked out theory, Austrian economics, to
guide him.
A ROTHBARDIAN VIEW OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Rothbard ranged far beyond economics in his historical
work. In a four-volume series, Conceived in Liberty,
(1975–1979) 135 he presented a detailed account of American
colonial history that stressed the libertarian antecedents of the
American Revolution. His fundamental thesis emerges in his discussion
of seventeenth-century developments. He states:
135 Conceived in Liberty, vol. I: A New Land, A New People: The American
Colonies in the Seventeenth Century; vol. II: “Salutary Neglect”: The
American Colonies in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century; vol. III:
Advance to Revolution, 1760–1775; vol. IV: The Revolutionary War,
1775–1784 (1979; Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1999).