For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto

I've long had somewhat of a libertarian streak in my thinking (one of the few A's I managed to get in high school was for a 15-page paper defending Dr. Kevorkian), but before reading this book I could scarcely have imagined that there existed such a systematic and comprehensive treatise in support of liberty. In "For A New Liberty," the late Murray Rothbard makes a powerful case for abolishing the state and allowing individualism to reign. Rothbard's ideology exists completely outside the tired rhetoric of this country's "left" and "right," instead laying out a new course in line with the classical liberalism that came to prominence around the eighteenth century. If you never vote in elections because you think the major-party candidates are all basically the same, this book may well provide the alternative you've been looking for.Dispensing with such ideologies as democracy, fascism, and communism, Rothbard reaches back to the tradition of the early American Republic to find support for his views. The American Revolution, he writes, "resulted in governments unprecedented in restrictions placed on their power," and the forces of big government triumphed only when the libertarian Democratic party was split over slavery. Rothbard is not at all ambiguous about what the post-Civil War statist order has brought: war, militarism, protectionism, and government-sponsored corporate monopoly, none of which benefit the great mass of people. While it may seem odd to see the son of Jewish immigrants championing the unfashionable ideals of our Founding Fathers, Rothbard makes a powerful case for a return to our country's roots. In place of a tax-financed government parcelling out benefits to its subjects, Rothbard advocates a free and voluntary society based on individual property rights. The right of property, whether in one's person or in material objects, is the right from which all other rights proceed: freedom of speech, of religion, of assemly, of the press, and any other right you can think of. If the state can abridge property rights, by extension it can abridge any other right. Rejecting the idea that a government can be a guarantor of liberty and security, Rothbard substitutes an axiom of nonaggression, claiming that property rights are of necessity inviolable and violence, theft, and coercion of any kind are inherently criminal. Rather than utilitarian concerns, Rothbard's belief in nonaggression is grounded in his perception of morality, making it perhaps the only consistent, workable moral absolute that mankind has yet developed. However, Rothbard hastens to point out that his doctrines would advance the material as well as the moral well-being of society, and comes up with plenty of evidence to back up his claim.In his early section on the State, Rothbard provides the reader with the ultimate devastation of the view of government as a force for good. His chief target is the double standard by which governments routinely get away wi

I was first introduced to this book by an open minded Political Economy professor, and I always come back to it whenever I need a refresher on strong rights based arguments for libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism. Rothbard explains, defends, and expounds upon the non-aggression axiom giving his readers a framework from which to deconstruct the state. On a more concrete level, Rothbard shows how the state is damaging of individual in all of activities, from involuntary servitude to the welfare state. All of this adds up to a nicely constructed libertarian lexicon.

If you're looking for an introduction to libertarian thought, this is THE book to read. Here, free-market economist and radical for liberty Murray Newton Rothbard tackles all the major issues: the philosophical basis of libertarianism, the history of classical liberalism, the failures of government to preserve basic liberties, and the ways in which a free-market economy handily solves problems that seem forever beyond the reach of government. Rothbard is also one of few libertarians to face the issue of pollution head-on. You'll search Ayn Rand's works in vain for any "pollution solution"; she was apparently content to believe the problem didn't really exist, a practice to some extent continued by her disciple George Reisman in his mostly brilliant treatise _Capitalism_. But Rothbard doesn't duck the issue: demonstrable pollution is an invasion of property rights and should be outlawed. Nor is Rothbard a friend of "corporate capitalism." Again unlike Rand, who regarded "big business" as "America's most persecuted minority," Rothbard lambastes big business for its constant seeking of government favors and its use of clout to secure protectionist legislation -- including "limited liability." All in all, this book is a treat. If you haven't read it yet, I envy you. Pick up a copy of this consistent, principled defense of liberty at once.

Murray Rothbard is considered to be the most influential of the modern libertarians, and in "For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto" he demonstrates why. In an American society content with confiscatory taxes and military slavery via conscription, Professor Rothbard redefines the concenpt of liberty: the Lockean concept of liberty which America was founded upon. This concept is one of Man's ability to reason and the right to self-rule which comes from it. From bans on prostitution and drugs to the forced "trust fund" called social security, Rothbard relentlessly decries the paternalism and coercion of government and calls for a return to our nation's libertarian roots. Professor Rothbard's defense of an age of freedom passed is eloquent evidence of the immensity of his learnings. From economics and political philosophy to history and the present state, Rothbard wages the war of ideas on all fronts with passion and ideology backed by empiricism and logic. "For a New Liberty" questions the contemporary conceptions of both the left and the right and presents a more consistent, just philosophy for America. Anyone embarking upon a reading of Rothbard's text must be open minded and ready to accept what America once was, and can be again