Freedom Book of the Month for September 2000:
An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard
by Justin Raimondo
Prometheus Books, 2000, 400 pp.

Murray Rothbard stood like a giant, astride and towering over every field to which his interest turned. History. Economics. Politics. Philosophy. Justin Raimondo's "An Enemy of the State" is noteworthy not only as the first book-length biography of one of liberty's patron saints, but as an accessible history of the Old Right, the libertarian movement, the impact of Austrian economics on the American academy and the drive to take historical scholarship back from those who would turn it to the ends of the political Establishment.

Raimondo begins the book with a refreshing departure from scholarly claims of neutrality: "[M]y purpose is as much to inspire as to instruct ... if this volume does its part to make [Rothbard's] social and political thought more accessible and readily available to a wider audience, it will have accomplished its purpose." The book is, indeed, a panegyric to Rothbard's genius rather than a cold narrative of his life, but it does its job well as both.

"An Enemy of the State" has many harsh things to say about individuals and institutions long regarded as part of the libertarian movement. While it is worthy of note that Raimondo, like Rothbard, left the Libertarian Party and eventually ended up in the camp of a resurgent populist Right (Raimondo delivered the nomination speech for Reform presidential candidate Pat Buchanan last week), he seems to play fairly in describing the factions, the fractions, and the fractures that beset that party and other libertarian institutions. While some may find his conclusions and opinions disagreeable, his narrative seems to match the known facts, if not necessarily the personal conclusions of others involved.

Indeed, given Rothbard's omnipresence in the realm of politics -- right, left, and libertarian -- it would be difficult to sketch his life without opening old wounds and difficult to open those wounds without revealing one's opinion of their origin. Murray Rothbard was a leading figure at one point or another in the history of the Peace and Freedom Party, the Libertarian Party, the Cato Institute, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, the Foundation for Economic Education and numerous other organizations, and his articles appeared in publications ranging from Ramparts to the Review of Austrian Economics, many of which he founded or edited.

"An Enemy of the State" will not satisfy everyone. Rothbard's journey was simply too long, covered too much territory, and led him to too many ideological crossroads for general assent and accompaniment. I believe, however, that the book achieves its goal of revealing the life of a great friend of freedom, laying bare the issues which he considered essential, and establishing Rothbard's life and work not as an end, but as the beginning of -- and road map for -- our journey down the road to liberty.

Order "An Enemy of the State" from Laissez Faire Books for $24.50

August 2000: The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell

July 2000: A Generation Divided by Rebecca Klatch

June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman

May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith

April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben

March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand

February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler

January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood

Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz

November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell

October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy

September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe

July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman

June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant

May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz

April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille

March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary

February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra