Murray N. Rothbard
Life and Work
- 2. März 1926
- 7. Januar 1995
- Generation 4
The episode on Murray N. Rothbard
Murray N. Rothbard in audio: the life, the one idea, the most famous argument, and which work to read first. About 15 minutes.
New episodes appear continually. The newsletter will let you know when the next one is out.
Stations
- 1945–1956Studies at Columbia University
Earned a B.A. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in economics at Columbia University.
- 1949–1959Mises's Private Seminar at NYU
After reading Mises's <em>Human Action</em>, he began attending the private seminar at NYU regularly in 1949; he remained active into the 1970s. bio_de names the 1950s as the central period.[1]
- 1950–1962Senior Analyst at the William Volker Fund
From the 1950s until 1962 as a “senior analyst” with a research grant from the William Volker Fund – the financial basis for Rothbard's early major works.[1]
- 1953Marriage to JoAnn Schumacher
Married JoAnn Beatrice Schumacher in New York City in 1953; she remained his life partner until Rothbard's death in 1995.[8]
- 1956Ph.D., Columbia (<em>The Panic of 1819</em>)
Received his doctorate in 1956 with the dissertation “The Panic of 1819” at Columbia University. The work had been delayed for years – Arthur Burns rejected it; only after Burns had left the Columbia faculty to chair Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisers was it accepted under Joseph Dorfman.[1]
- 1962<em>Man, Economy, and State</em>
Publication of the two-volume early work <em>Man, Economy, and State</em>, in which Rothbard further developed Mises's approaches in monetary theory, the theory of monopoly, and the theory of capital and interest.[1]
- 1963<em>America's Great Depression</em>
Publication of <em>America's Great Depression</em>. Rothbard set out how the inflation of the 'Roaring Twenties' led to the stock market crash of 1929, and contested the Keynesian interpretation.[1]
- 1964<em>What Has Government Done to Our Money?</em>
A pamphlet-like work on monetary history and state intervention in the monetary system; one of the most influential pleas for the gold standard in the second half of the 20th century.[1]
- 1966–1986Professorship at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute
Professor at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute from 1966 to 1986.[1]
- 1973<em>For a New Liberty</em>
A major libertarian manifesto; it outlines a systematic anarcho-capitalist social order.[1]
- 1976Co-founding of the Center for Libertarian Studies— approximate
Co-founder of the Center for Libertarian Studies, a libertarian research and lecture organisation.[6]
- 1977Co-founding of the Cato Institute
Co-founder of the Cato Institute together with Charles Koch and Edward Crane; later a break with the Cato Institute. In the same year, founding of the “Journal of Libertarian Studies”.[1]
- 1982Co-founding of the Ludwig von Mises Institute
Co-founder of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama; as Academic Vice-President, the central academic figure of the institute until his death.[1]
- 1986–1995Professorship at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Professor at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas from 1986 to 1995.[1]
- 1995“An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought”
Publication of the two-volume work on the history of economic doctrine, presenting a comprehensive history of economic theory from the perspective of the Austrians.[1]
Influences
- 1949–1959
Regarded as perhaps the most important Mises student in the New World; Rothbard deepened his teacher's approaches especially in the theory of money, monopoly, capital and interest.[1]
- 1956–1956Joseph Dorfman(1904–1991) · US-Wirtschaftsgeschichte
Doctoral advisor at Columbia University: after Burns's move to Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisers, the dissertation “The Panic of 1819” was accepted in 1956 under Joseph Dorfman.[1]
- —Arthur Burns(1904–1987) · NBER / US-Notenbank
Originally the doctoral advisor at Columbia, he rejected the dissertation “The Panic of 1819” for years; a family acquaintance of the Rothbards. Only after Burns moved to Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisers (1953) could the doctorate be completed.
- —Milton Friedman(1912–2006) · Chicago School
Intellectual antipode to Milton Friedman: Rothbard as a radical-libertarian Austrian counter-model to the monetarist Chicago School, with numerous public debates on monetary, central-bank and business-cycle policy.[1]
- 1986–1995
Hoppe went to the USA for the purpose of study and became a long-standing student of Murray N. Rothbard; he eventually took over his chair at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.[2]
- —Samuel Edward Konkin III(1947–2004) · US-Agorismus
Samuel Edward Konkin III wird in der Wikipedia-EN-Infobox als „notable student" Rothbards aufgeführt; sein Agorismus baut explizit auf Rothbards anarchokapitalistischem Ansatz auf.[3]
- —Walter Block(1941–living) · Wiener Schule (zeitgenoessisch)
Walter Block wird in der Wikipedia-EN-Infobox als „notable student" Rothbards geführt; sein Werk steht ausdruecklich in der Rothbard-Tradition.[5]
- 1949–1959
Participant in the Mises-Privatseminar at NYU from 1949 to the end of the 1950s, with activity into the 1970s.[1]
- 1950–1962William Volker Fund · US-Libertarismus (Förderfonds)
William Volker Fund förderte Rothbard über zehn Jahre als Senior Analyst und Stipendiat – die finanzielle Basis seiner frühen Hauptwerke.[1]
- 1977–1981Charles Koch(1935–living) · US-Libertarismus
Co-founder, with Charles Koch and Edward Crane, of the Cato Institute in 1977; break in 1981.[6]
- 1977–1981Edward H. Crane(1944–2026) · US-Libertarismus (Cato)
Co-founder of the Cato Institute in 1977 together with Edward Crane and Charles Koch; break in 1981 (Rothbard was removed from the board).[7]
- 1980
Garrison war über Jahrzehnte Adjunct Scholar am Mises Institute und teilte mit Rothbard die Verteidigung der Mises-Hayek-Konjunkturtheorie.
- 1982–1995Llewellyn H. Rockwell jr.(1944–living) · Wiener Schule / Mises Institute
Mit Lew Rockwell Mitbegründer des Ludwig von Mises Institute (Auburn, Alabama) 1982; Rockwell wird in mises.org/profile als „Institutsgründer" und akademischer Weggefaehrte Rothbards bis zu dessen Tod geführt.[1]
- 1986–1995
From 1986 Hoppe and Rothbard worked together at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; after Rothbard's death in 1995 Hoppe took over his chair.
Murray N. Rothbard in the context of the School as a whole: five generations, their teacher-student lineages, circles and collegial ties.
Show in the family tree →SOURCES ON STATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS29 citations · 4 sources
- [6]Hawley 2016: Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism, S. 129, 164 · 2×
- [7]Hawley 2016: Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism, S. 129, 164, 166
Places of Activity
The Books
- Mensch, Wirtschaft und Staat2019OriginalGerman
- Das Schein-Geld-SystemOriginalGerman
Essays, Reviews, Lectures
- APA
- Murray N. Rothbard. (n.d.). Edited by mises.at and scholarium. Accessed October 8, 2026, from https://mises.co/murray-n-rothbard
- Chicago
- “Murray N. Rothbard.” n.d. Edited by mises.at and scholarium. Accessed October 8, 2026. https://mises.co/murray-n-rothbard.
- German historical style
- Murray N. Rothbard, edited by mises.at and scholarium, https://mises.co/murray-n-rothbard (accessed October 8, 2026).