[cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

Today is Murray Rothbard’s birthday; and tomorrow, as Dan D’Amico reminds me, is Gustave de Molinari’s. Seems to me this conjunction deserves commemoration, a sort of market anarchists’ equivalent of Presidents’ Day – without Massa George or Emperor Abe. (Murrlinari Day? Perhaps it’s appropriate that it falls roughly between Presidents’ Day and the Ides of March.)

The parallels between Molinari, “the law of supply and demand made into man,” and Rothbard, “Mr. Libertarian,” are interesting. Both were leading representatives of the major free-market traditions of their day (the French Liberal and the Austrian respectively) who dismayed their mentors by pushing the logic of market principles to the point of replacing the full range of government services entirely. Both were extremely prolific writers who had broad interests in, and made important contributions to, economics, philosophy, history, sociology, and political theory. Both sought to bridge traditional left/right divides. Both were fierce critics of imperialism and war. Both wrote with engaging clarity. Molinari pioneered market anarchism in the 19th century, while Rothbard was its foremost proponent in the 20th.

The differences in their reception are somewhat puzzling: Molinari gained mainstream recognition and respect (while an obscure figure in our day, he was quite celebrated in his own), but won very few converts to his free-market version of anarchism (Benjamin Tucker’s version seems to have been developed independently); Rothbard gained relatively little mainstream recognition or respect – but many more converts. Go figure.

Anyway – happy birthday, Gustave and Murray!

Kenneth R Gregg - 3/3/2007

I'm about 1/3 through David Gordon's biography, "The Essential Rothbard", and am quite impressed. It's great to have this come out at the same time as MNR's birthday.
Cheers!
Just Ken

Sudha Shenoy - 3/2/2007

Murray only owed the substantial part of his _economic_ arguments against the American state, to the older Austrians. The latter were not created by the American intellectual context -- they were, intellectually speaking, nonamericans. But Murray was the quintessential American: he belongs squarely in the line of American libertarian thinkers. Eg, his chapter on competition (in MES) is a masterly evisceration of American policy arguments for the Sherman Anti-trust Act & others of that ilk. Such American policies are not even mentioned by the older Austrians (even Hayek's treatment is tangential.)

Roderick T. Long - 3/2/2007

Nope, mine was Feb. 4th.

Aeon J. Skoble - 3/2/2007

Yours coming soon also, IIRC?