Conceived in Liberty
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Conceived in Liberty, authored by Murray Rothbard, is a 4-volume set covering the complete history of the United States from the pre-colonial period through the American Revolution.
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[edit] Brief summary
Writing in the 1960s and 70s, Rothbard proposes that it is the struggle for human liberty that is at the heart of the history of the United States.
In this detailed narrative history (1,668 pages) of the struggle between liberty and political power, Rothbard offers an alternative to the two conventional interpretive devices. Against those on the right who see the American Revolution as a "conservative" event, and those on the left who want to invoke it as some sort of proto-socialist uprising, Rothbard views this period as a time of accelerating libertarian radicalism.
[edit] Rothbard on his creation
From a 1990 interview:
"After the Volker Fund collapsed, I got a grant from the Lilly Endowment to do a history of the U.S., which I worked on from 1962-66. The original idea was to take the regular facts and put a libertarian assessment on everything. But once I started to work on it, I found many facts that had been left out, like tax rebellions. So it got longer and longer. It turned into the five-volume Conceived in Liberty, covering the Colonial period to the Constitution. I don't like to completely chart out my research in advance. I go step by step and it always seems to get longer than anticipated. After Arlington House published volume four, they went out of business. Volume five, on the Constitution, was written in longhand and no one can read my handwriting." [1]
[edit] Contents of the 4 volumes
- Volume One covers the discovery of the Americas and the colonies in the 17th century (531 pages, including index).
- Volume Two covers the period of "salutary neglect" in the first half of the 18th century (294 pages, including index).
- Volume Three covers the advance to revolution, from 1760-1775 (373 pages, including index).
- Volume Four covers the political, military, and ideological history of the revolution and after (470 pages, including index).
[edit] Excerpts
- Volume I, Chapter 55, Pennsylvania's Anarchist Experiment: 1681-1690, Full text (slightly edited)
- Volume II, Chapter 33, The Growth of Libertarian Thought in Colonial America. Full text
- Volume II, Chapter 40, The American Colonies and the War. Online text (slightly edited)
[edit] Reviews
- "So about the time a narrative begins to appear, so do passions unmarred by references to sources or scholars. The book, in short, is without value for either scholars or libraries." (Carl Ubbelohde, The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 42, No. 3. (Aug., 1976), pp. 416-417)
- David Gordon in 2007.
- Robert Klassen in 2002.
- Laissez-Faire Books.
[edit] Publishing history
- Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute, January 15, 2000. Hardcover. 1668 pages. ISBN 0-945466-26-9.
- Liberty Tree Press, September 1989. Paperback. ISBN 0-945999-23-2.
- New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House Publishers:
- Volume I. 1975. ISBN 0-87000-262-7.
- Volume II. 1975. ISBN 0-87000-316-X.
- Volume III. 1976. ISBN 0-87000-343-7.
- Volume IV. 1979. ISBN 0-87000-352-6.
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