I have decided to read all of Rothbard’s books and I was wondering if there was a specific order that I should read them in or if I should just start anywhere. I was thinking of going chronologically but I hear Man, Economy, and State can be kind of rough to start with. Any advise ?
LewRockwell.com has resources on Murray Rothbard that can help you. Before reading each book he wrote, you should consider reading his shorter publications.
Do not exclude other libertarians from consideration. While libertarians may make the same arguments, they can make them in different ways (complex or simpler, shorter or longer, historically-based or theoretically-based, etcetera).
I recently read Viception which I thought was an excellent defense of liberty. It is an easy to understand book. Here is my review of it.
while I really like rothbard - the more I read him the more I find that many of his “arguments” are made almost verbatim in several books.
the first thing I read was “for a new liberty”.. I thought it was outstanding - mind blowing - because so many of the ideas were new to me. as a US history buff - i thought he was not as objective as he could have been on the cold war
I have since read ethics of liberty, anatomy of the state and many shorter things, again there seems to be a lot of restating the same points in the same words.
so far new liberty is my favorite
I suggest starting off with For A New Liberty: A Libertarian Manifesto then move onto Ethics of Liberty. At that spot you can diverge into his historical works or his economic works. Some works are actually a hybrid of the two.
History:
History of Economic Thought
History of Money and Banking in the US
The Panic of 1819
*Betrayal of the American Right*
Conceived in Liberty
Economics:
Mystery of Banking
Case Against the Fed
What Has Government Done to Our Money?
Man, Economy, State
My first Rothbard book/essay was Anatomy of the State. Being a fledgling an-cap at the time, it was a good read.
Me too! I must say, I never looked at the world the same way again.
To the OP, I don’t really see the point in trying to read all of Rothbards works. If I was you, I would try to get a good understanding of Austrian economics first.
I just finished my first Rothbard book: America’s Great Depression. I’m moving on to For A New Liberty next.