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The appearance of the
famous (and massive) volumes of Rothbard's History of
Economic Thought in a new edition is cause for great
celebration. They have been out of print for many years, and were
previously only available at a price exceeding $200 for the set. They
are at last accessible again, in beautiful hardcover, and at an
affordable price.
In Economic Thought Before Adam Smith,
Murray Rothbard traces economic ideas from ancient sources to show that
laissez-faire liberalism and economic thought itself began with the
scholastics and early Roman, Greek, and canon law. He celebrates
Aristotle and Democritus, for example, but loathes Plato and Diogenes.
He is kind toward Taoism and Stoicism. He is no fan of Tertullian but
very much likes St. Jerome, who defended the merchant class. Now, that
takes us only to page 33, just the beginning of a wild ride through the
middle ages and renaissance and modern times through 1870.
Classical Economics offers new perspectives
on both Ricardo and Say and their followers. The author suggests that
Ricardianism declined after 1820 and was only revived with the work of
John Stuart Mill. The book also resurrects the important Anglo-Irish
school of thought at Trinity College, Dublin under Archbishop Richard
Whatley. Later chapters focus on the roots of Karl Marx and the nature
of his doctrines, and laissez-faire thought in France including the
work of Frederic Bastiat. Also included is a comprehensive treatment of
the bullionist versus the anti-bullionist and the currency versus
banking school controversies in the first half of the nineteenth
century, and their influence outside Great Britain.
These are indeed the books that Mises himself longed to see: "A real history of economic thought," he said in 1955, "would have to point out the development of the doctrines and not merely list every book."
When these volumes first appeared, they were celebrated in Barron's
and by top scholars around the world. They succeeded in changing the
way people think about economic doctrine: the beginnings (not Adam
Smith, but the Spanish theologians), the dead ends (Marx), the great
triumphs (Bastiat, for example), and the truly great minds (Turgot and
many others he rescued from near obscurity).
Rothbard read deeply in thinkers dating back hundreds and
thousands of years, and spotted every promising line of thought
— and every unfortunate one. He knew when an idea would lead
to prosperity, and when it would lead to calamity. He could spot a
proto-Keynesian or proto-Marxist idea in the middle ages, just as he
could find free-market lines of thought in ancient manuscripts.
Many scholars believe this was his most important work. The
irony is that it is not the work it was supposed to be, and thank
goodness. He was asked to do a short overview of the modern era. He
ended up writing more than 1,000 pages of original ideas that remade
the whole of intellectual history up through the late 19th century.
Once Rothbard got into the project, he found that most all
historians have made the same error: they have believed that the
history of thought was a long history of progress. He found that sound
ideas ebb and flow in history. So he set out to rescue the great ideas
from the past and compare them with the bad ideas of the "new
economics."
His demolition of Karl Marx is more complete and in depth than
any other ever published. His reconstruction of 19th-century banking
debates has provided enough new ideas for a dozen dissertations, and
contemporary real-money reform. His surprising evisceration of John
Stuart Mill is cause to rethink the whole history of classical
liberalism.
Most famously, Rothbard demonstrated that Adam Smith's
economic theories were, in many ways, a comedown from his predecessors
in France and Spain. For example, Smith puzzled over the source of
value and finally tagged labor as the source (a mistake Marx built on).
But for centuries prior, the earliest economists knew that value came
from within the human mind. It was a human estimation, not an objective
construct.
Rothbard was a pioneer in incorporating the sociology of
religion into the history of economic ideas. He saw that the advent of
Christianity had a huge impact on the theory of the state. He observed
the rise of absolutism and theory of nationalism that came with the
reformation. He traced the changes in the Western view toward lending
and interest payments over the course of a thousand years.
The number of insights in these volumes are countless. Every
page, every paragraph, bursts with intellectual energy and the author's
fiery passion to tell the reader the remarkable story of economics.
Many reviewers have remarked that Rothbard's accomplishment seems
super-human. He seems to have read everything. His originality is
overwhelming. His passion for liberty and integrity in science is
evident. His disdain toward those who sell out to the state is manifest
as well.
Rothbard worked on these volumes in the ten years before his
death. He also gave a series of lectures on his ongoing research. As a
result, we all had very high expectations. But nothing could have
prepared us for what eventually appeared.
This set is a monument to Rothbard's genius, a resource that
will be valuable to intellectuals for generations, and a great read too!
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