I Chose Liberty - Ludwig von Mises Institute

51
9
WALTER BLOCK
ON AUTOBIOGRAPHY
One of the (very few, perhaps the only) problems I have with the publication output
of Murray N. Rothbard is that he never wrote his autobiography. Don’t ask me which of
his articles or books I would wish not to have been written, so as to leave room for this
non-existent autobiography. Given that there are alternative costs of time in the very nature
of things, such a work could only have been written at the expense of one or more of his
actual publications, on the assumption that the part of his life he devoted to writing is
otherwise fixed. I regard this as an impertinent question, and refuse to answer it.
Although denigrated by some, autobiography is an important part of literature. Often,
it can even help to make substantive ideas of an author such as Murray “come alive.” For
many people, knowing about the life of a scholar—whether a Mises or a Keynes—can focus
attention on his substantive contribution. But autobiography is not merely an aid in promoting
understanding of and interest in scholarly output. It is also of intrinsic value besides,
also inspiring the next generation to greater efforts.
These remarks, unfortunately, cannot rectify matters regarding Murray. He lives, now,
only in his own writings, and in the minds, hearts, and thoughts of all those whose lives
he impacted. (Hint, hint: while no autobiography of him can now be forthcoming, matters
are far different with regard to biography. The more of these the better, as far as I am
concerned.)
There are numerous auto and biographies, seemingly, written by and about every
Marxist, interventionist, feminist, politician, gay activist, etc., known to man, and some
not, in this category. One of the problems with libertarians and Austrians, in my opinion,
is that we have under-allocated intellectual resources to this end. In order to remedy this
lacunae, I should like to make a “modest proposal” to the members of this list: that a bunch
of us, followers and students of Murray, resolve to let the world become acquainted, not
with the intellectual stories of our entire lives, merely with the beginnings of them. Specifically,
I invite all those who have been heavily influenced by Ludwig von Mises and Murray
Rothbard, either personally or through their writings, to write up a bit of their autobiography,
focusing on how they first were introduced to this philosophy. If we can no longer
have this autobiographical information from Murray, perhaps we can from the rest of us,
and this can in some small way make up for that lack.
Born in 1941 in Brooklyn, I was brought up amongst Jewish liberals (almost a redundancy)
and naturally fell into this mode of thinking. Everyone around me could hardly be
wrong, especially to a teenager who had never read, nor even heard about, any alternative