The Essential Rothbard - Ludwig von Mises Institute

The Essential Rothbard 63
thinkers,” in their own estimation, were quite willing to impose
suffering and death upon others, if doing so would advance their
mad schemes. As he notes: “War . . . offered a golden opportunity
to bring about collectivist social control in the interest of social
justice.” 164 Once more, John Dewey is a major figure. “Force, he
declared, was simply ‘a means of getting results’ and therefore
could neither be lauded nor condemned per se.” 165
164 Denson, ed., The Costs of War, p. 271.
165 Ibid.
THE UNKNOWN ROTHBARD:
UNPUBLISHED PAPERS
In his work for the Volker Fund, Rothbard wrote a large number
of reports on books and issues. These reports are much
more than displays of Rothbard’s virtuosity: they frequently
offer fuller discussions of vital points in his thought than are available
in his books and articles. Unfortunately, they have hitherto
remained unpublished. Dr. Roberta Modugno, in a veritable triumph
of Rothbardian scholarship, has made available to the public
for the first time a selection from the most important of these
reports, in Italian translation, in her Diritto, natura e ragione: Scritti
inediti versus Hayek, Mises, Strauss e Polanyi 166 ; most of them, however
remain unpublished. It is safe to say that future research on
Rothbard will devote much attention to them; here only a few
items can be described.
166 Diritto, natura e ragione: Scritti inediti versus Hayek, Mises, Strauss e
Polanyi, Roberta Modugno, ed. (Soveria Mannelli, Italy: Rubbettino,
2005). Translated as Right, Nature, and Reason: Unpublished Writings Versus
Hayek, Mises, Strauss and Polanyi. An English edition is being prepared by
the Ludwig von Mises Institute.