For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto

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For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto

LvMI online e-book edition cover
Author Murray N. Rothbard
Country United States of America
Language English
Genre(s) Political philosophy
Publisher Ludwig von Mises Institute
Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback) & e-book, audio-CD
Pages 349 pp (Online e-book edition)
ISBN ISBN 0-945466-47-1 (Hardcover edition)

For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto is a book by American economist and historian Murray N. Rothbard, first published in 1973, that helped launch the modern libertarian movement in the United States. The second edition was first published in 1978, while the third edition was first published in 1985. It is the only book for which Rothbard received a mainstream publishing contract.

Contents

[edit] Basic tenets

The book embraces anarcho-capitalism, the most radical strain of libertarianism, as opposed to the minarchism advocated by such 20th-century libertarians as Robert Nozick, Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman. Rothbard does, however, trace the intellectual origins of libertarianism back to classical liberal philosophers John Locke and Adam Smith and the American Revolution. He argues that modern libertarianism originated not as a response to socialism or leftism, but to conservatism. In 2006 the Ludwig von Mises Institute released a new hardbound edition, with a new introduction by Lew Rockwell. For a New Liberty is, along with The Ethics of Liberty (also by Rothbard), one of the most comprehensive and influential expositions of anarcho-capitalist thought.

[edit] The Non-Aggression Axiom

The core of libertarianism, writes Rothbard, is the non-aggression axiom: "that no man or group of men may aggress against the person or property of anyone else." He points out that while this principle is almost universally applied to private individuals and institutions, the government is considered above the general moral law, and therefore does not have to abide by this axiom. Herein lies the fundamental distinction of libertarians:

In contrast to all other thinkers, left, right, or in-between, the libertarian refuses to give the State the moral sanction to commit actions that almost everyone agrees would be immoral, illegal, and criminal if committed by any person or group in society...if we look at the State naked, as it were, we see that it is universally allowed, and even encouraged, to commit all the acts which even non-libertarians concede are reprehensible crimes...The libertarian, in short, is almost completely the child in the fable, pointing out insistently that the em­peror has no clothes. (Ch. 2, Property and Exchange)

[edit] The consistency of libertarianism

Rothbard attempts to dispel the notion that libertarianism constitutes a sect or off-shoot of liberalism or conservatism, or that its seemingly right-wing opinions on economic policy and left-wing opinions on social and foreign policy are contradictory:

But the libertarian sees no inconsistency in being "leftist" on some issues and "rightist" on others. On the contrary, he sees his own position as virtually the only consistent one, consistent on behalf of the liberty of every individual. For how can the leftist be opposed to the violence of war and conscription while at the same time supporting the violence of taxation and government control? And how can the rightist trumpet his devotion to private property and free enterprise while at the same time favoring war, conscription, and the outlawing of noninvasive activities and practices that he deems immoral? And how can the rightist favor a free market while seeing nothing amiss in the vast subsidies, distortions, and unproductive inefficiencies involved in the military-industrial complex? (Ch. 2, Property and Exchange)

[edit] Rothbard on "The State"

Rothbard elaborates on the libertarian view of government in this particularly trenchant and radical passage:

The State! Always and ever the government and its rulers and opera­tors have been considered above the general moral law. The "Pentagon Papers" are only one recent instance among innumerable instances in history of men, most of whom are perfectly honorable in their private lives, who lie in their teeth before the public. Why? For "reasons of State." Service to the State is supposed to excuse all actions that would be considered immoral or criminal if committed by "private" citizens. The distinctive feature of libertarians is that they coolly and uncompro­misingly apply the general moral law to people acting in their roles as members of the State apparatus. Libertarians make no exceptions. For centuries, the State (or more strictly, individuals acting in their roles as "members of the government") has cloaked its criminal activity in high-sounding rhetoric. For centuries the State has committed mass murder and called it "war"; then ennobled the mass slaughter that "war" involves. For centuries the State has enslaved people into its armed battalions and called it "conscription" in the "national service." For centuries the State has robbed people at bayonet point and called it "taxation." In fact, if you wish to know how libertarians regard the State and any of its acts, simply think of the State as a criminal band, and all of the libertarian attitudes will logically fall into place. (Ch. 3, The State)

[edit] Table of contents

Preface
1. The Libertarian Heritage: The American Revolution and Classical Liberalism

Part I: The Libertarian Creed
2. Property and Exchange
3. The State

Part II: Libertarian Applications to Current Problems
4. The Problems
5. Involuntary Servitude
6. Personal Liberty
7. Education
8. Welfare and the Welfare State
9. Inflation and the Business Cycle: The Collapse of the Keynesian Paradigm
10. The Public Sector, I: Government in Business
11. The Public Sector, II: Streets and Roads
12. The Public Sector, III: Police, Law, and the Courts
13. Conservation, Ecology, and Growth
14. War and Foreign Policy

Part III: Epilogue
15. A Strategy for Liberty

Appendix: The Libertarian Movement
Index

[edit] Publishing history

[edit] English

  • University Press of America. Paperback. March 1986. ISBN 0-8191-4981-0
  • Revised edition, Collier Books, 1978. Paperback

[edit] Spanish

  • Hacia una Nueva Libertad: El Manifiesto Libertario. Grito Sagrado. January 2006. Paperback. ISBN 987-1239-01-7
  • 2004

[edit] Italian

  • 2003

[edit] Greek

  • 2005

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Books by Murray Rothbard (1926-1995)