In economics, ''laissez-faire'' (, ) describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies.

The phrase ''laissez-faire'' is French and literally means "let do", but it broadly implies "let it be", or "leave it alone."

Origins of the phrase

According to historical legend, the phrase stems from a meeting in about 1680 between the powerful French finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert and a group of French businessmen led by a certain M. Le Gendre. When the eager mercantilist minister asked how the French state could be of service to the merchants and help promote their commerce, Le Gendre replied simply "''Laissez-nous faire''" ("Leave us be", lit. "Let us do").

The anecdote on the Colbert-Le Gendre meeting was related in a 1751 article in the ''Journal Oeconomique'' by the French minister and champion of free trade, René de Voyer, Marquis d'Argenson - which happens to also be the phrase's first known appearance in print. Argenson himself had used the phrase earlier (1736) in his own diaries, in a famous outburst:

The ''laissez faire'' slogan was popularized by Vincent de Gournay, a French intendant of commerce in the 1750s. Gournay was an ardent proponent of the removal of restrictions on trade and the deregulation of industry in France. Gournay was delighted by the Colbert-LeGendre anecdote, and forged it into a larger maxim all his own: "''Laissez faire et laissez passer''" ('Let do and let pass'). His motto has also been identified as the longer "''Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même!''" ("Let do and let pass, the world goes on by itself!"). Although Gournay left no written tracts on his economic policy ideas, he had immense personal influence on his contemporaries, notably the Physiocrats, who credit both the ''laissez-faire'' slogan and the doctrine to Gournay.

Before d'Argenson or Gournay, P.S. de Boisguilbert had enunciated the phrase "on laisse faire la nature" ('let nature run its course'). D'Argenson himself, during his life, was better known for the similar but less-celebrated motto "''Pas trop gouverner''" ("Govern not too much"). But it was Gournay's use of the 'laissez-faire' phrase (as popularized by the Physiocrats) that gave it its cachet.

In England, a number of "free trade" and "non-interference" slogans had been coined already during the 17th century. But the French phrase ''laissez faire'' gained currency in English-speaking countries with the spread of Physiocratic literature in the late 18th century. The Colbert-LeGendre anecdote was relayed in George Whatley's 1774 ''Principles of Trade'' (co-authored with Benjamin Franklin) - which may be the first appearance of the phrase in an English language publication.

Notably, classical economists, such as Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith and David Ricardo, did not use the phrase. Jeremy Bentham used the term, but it was probably James Mill's reference to the "''laissez-faire''" maxim (together with "''pas trop gouverner''") in an 1824 entry for the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' that really brought the term into wider English usage. With the advent of the Anti-Corn Law League, the term received much of its (English) meaning.

Adam Smith first used the metaphor of an "invisible hand" in his book ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'' to describe the unintentional effects of economic self organization from economic self interest. Some have characterized this metaphor as one for ''laissez-faire'', but Smith never actually used the term himself.

History of laissez-faire debate

During the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties, Chinese scholar-officials would often debate about the interference the government should have in the economy, such as setting monopolies in lucrative industries and instating price controls. Such debates were often heated with Confucian factions tending to oppose extensive government controls and "Reform" factions favoring such moves. During the Han and Tang, emperors sometimes instated government monopolies in times of war, and abolished them later when the fiscal crisis had passed. Eventually, in the later Song and Ming dynasties, state monopolies were abolished in every industry and were never reinstated during the length of that dynasty, with the government following laissez-faire policies. During the Manchu Qing Dynasty, state monopolies were reinstated, and the government interfered heavily in the economy; many scholars believe this prevented China from developing capitalism.

Europe

In Britain, in 1843, the newspaper ''The Economist'' was founded, and became an influential voice for ''laissez-faire'' capitalism. In response to the Irish famine of 1846–1849, in which over 1.5 million people died of starvation, they argued that for the government to supply free food for the Irish would violate natural law. Clarendon, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, wrote, "I don't think there is another legislature in Europe that would disregard such suffering."

A group calling itself the Manchester Liberals, to which Richard Cobden and Richard Wright belonged, were staunch defenders of free trade, and their work was carried on, after the death of Richard Cobden in 1866, by ''The Cobden Club''. In 1867, a free trade treaty was signed between Britain and France, after which several of these treaties were signed among other European countries.

British ''laissez-faire'' was not absolute. The United Kingdom company law, the Limited Liability Act 1855, and the Joint Stock Companies Act 1856 were exceptions.

''Laissez-faire'' policy was never absolute in any nation, and at the end of the 19th century, European countries again took up some economic protectionism and interventionism. France for example, started cancelling its free trade agreements with other European countries in 1890. Germany's protectionism started (again) with a December 1878 letter from Bismarck, resulting in the iron and rye tariff of 1879.

United States

Although the period before the New Deal was notable for the limited extent of the federal government, the Austrian School suggests that there was a considerable degree of government intervention in the economy—particularly after the 1860s. Notable examples of government intervention in the period prior to the Civil War include the establishment of the First Bank of the United States and Second Bank of the United States as well as various protectionist measures (e.g., the tariff of 1828). Several of these proposals met with serious opposition, and required a great deal of horse trading to be enacted into law. For instance, the First National Bank would not have reached the desk of President George Washington in the absence of an agreement that was reached between Alexander Hamilton and several southern members of Congress to locate the capital in the District of Columbia. In contrast to Hamilton and the Federalists was the opposing political party the Democratic-Republicans.

Most of the early opponents of ''laissez-faire'' capitalism in the United States subscribed to the American School. This school of thought was inspired by the ideas of Alexander Hamilton, who proposed the creation of a government-sponsored bank and increased tariffs to favor northern industrial interests. Following Hamilton's death, the more abiding protectionist influence in the antebellum period came from Henry Clay and his ''American System''.

In the mid-19th century, the United States followed the Whig tradition of economic liberalism, which included increased state control, regulation and macroeconomic development of infrastructure. Public works such as the provision and regulation transportation such as railroads took effect. The Pacific Railway Acts provided the development of the First Transcontinental Railroad. In order to help pay for its war effort in the American Civil War, the United States government imposed its first personal income tax, on August 5, 1861, as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872).

Following the Civil War, the movement towards a mixed economy accelerated. Protectionism increased with the McKinley Tariff of 1890 and the Dingley Tariff of 1897. Government regulation of the economy expanded with the enactment of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 and the Sherman Anti-trust Act.

The Progressive Era saw the enactment of more controls on the economy, as evidenced by the Wilson Administration's New Freedom program.

Following World War I and the Great Depression, Keynesian policies turned the state into a mixed economy. The United States, in the 1980s, for example, sought to protect its automobile industry by "voluntary" export restrictions from Japan. Pietro S. Nivola wrote in 1986:}}

See also

Anarcho-capitalism

Capitalism

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand

Classical liberalism

Criticisms of capitalism

Economic liberalism

Free market

Libertarianism

Perspectives on capitalism

Market anarchism

Market fundamentalism

Minarchism

Objectivism

Ordoliberalism

Positive non-interventionism

References

Bibliography

Further reading

by Christian Gerlach, London School of Economics – March 2005

John Maynard Keynes, The end of laissez-faire (1926)

Category:Classical liberalism Category:Political theories Category:Economic liberalism Category:Political movements Category:Political economy Category:Paleolibertarianism Category:Minarchism Category:French words and phrases Category:Capitalism Category:Right-wing politics Category:Individualism

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name	Ayn Rand
alt	Half-length monochrome portrait photo of Ayn Rand, seated, holding a cigarette
birth name	Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum
birth date	February 02, 1905
birth place	Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
death date	March 06, 1982
death place	New York City, United States
occupation	philosopher, writer
citizenship	United States
ethnicity	Russian Jew
language	English
period	1934–1982
subject	philosophy
alma mater	University of Petrograd
spouse	Frank O'Connor(m. 1929-1979, his death)
influences	Aristotle, Frédéric Bastiat, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, O. Henry, Henry Hazlitt, Victor Hugo, H.L. Mencken, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Nietzsche, Isabel Paterson
influenced	Martin Anderson, Bob Barr, Andrew Bernstein, Harry Binswanger, Barbara Branden, Nathaniel Branden, Steve Ditko, Edith Efron, Terry Goodkind, Allan Gotthelf, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen, Erika Holzer, John Hospers, David Kelley, Anton LaVey, Liu Junning, Edwin A. Locke, Tibor Machan, Stefan Molyneux, Ron Paul, Neil Peart, Leonard Peikoff, George Reisman, Murray Rothbard, John Ridpath, Paul Ryan, Chris Matthew Sciabarra, George H. Smith, Kay Nolte Smith, L. Neil Smith, Tara Smith, John Stossel, Clarence Thomas, Jimmy Wales
notableworks	''The Fountainhead''''Atlas Shrugged''
signature	Sign Ayn Rand.png }}

Ayn Rand (; born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, – March 6, 1982) was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels ''The Fountainhead'' and ''Atlas Shrugged'' and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism.

Born and educated in Russia, Rand moved to the United States in 1926. She worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood and had a play produced on Broadway in 1935–1936. After two initially unsuccessful early novels, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel ''The Fountainhead''. In 1957, she published her best-known work, the philosophical novel ''Atlas Shrugged''. Afterward she turned to nonfiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own magazines and releasing several collections of essays until her death in 1982.

In her philosophy of Objectivism, Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge and rejected all forms of faith and religion. She supported rational egoism and rejected ethical altruism. In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and opposed all forms of collectivism and statism, instead supporting ''laissez-faire'' capitalism, which she believed was the only social system that protected individual rights. She promoted romantic realism in art. She was sharply critical of most other philosophers and philosophical traditions.

The reception for Rand's fiction from literary critics was largely negative, and most academics have ignored or rejected her philosophy. Nonetheless she continues to have a popular following, and her political ideas have been influential among libertarians and some conservatives. The Objectivist movement attempts to spread her ideas, both to the public and in academic settings.

Life and work

Early life

Rand was born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum () on February 2, 1905, to a bourgeois family living in Saint Petersburg. She was the eldest of the three daughters of Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum and Anna Borisovna Rosenbaum, largely non-observant Jews. Rand's father was a successful pharmacist, eventually owning his own pharmacy and the building in which it was located. Rand was twelve at the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, during which her sympathies were with Alexander Kerensky. Rand's family life was disrupted by the rise of the Bolshevik party under Vladimir Lenin. Her father's pharmacy was confiscated by the Bolsheviks, and the family fled to the Crimea, which was initially under the control of the White Army during the Russian Civil War. She later recalled that while in high school she determined that she was an atheist and that she valued reason above any other human attribute. After graduating from high school in the Crimea, at sixteen Rand returned with her family to Petrograd (the new name for Saint Petersburg), where they faced desperate conditions, on occasion nearly starving.

After the Russian Revolution, universities were opened to women, including Jews, allowing Rand to be in the first group of women to enroll at Petrograd State University, where she studied in the department of social pedagogy, majoring in history. At the university she was introduced to the writings of Aristotle and Plato, who would form two of her greatest influences and counter-influences, respectively. A third figure whose philosophical works she studied heavily was Friedrich Nietzsche. Able to read French, German and Russian, Rand also discovered the writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, Victor Hugo, Edmond Rostand, and Friedrich Schiller, who became her perennial favorites.

Along with many other "bourgeois" students, Rand was purged from the university shortly before graduating. However, after complaints from a group of visiting foreign scientists, many of the purged students were allowed to complete their work and graduate, which Rand did in October 1924. She subsequently studied for a year at the State Technicum for Screen Arts in Leningrad. For one of her assignments, she wrote an essay about the actress Pola Negri, which became her first published work.

By this time she had decided her professional surname for writing would be ''Rand'', possibly as a Cyrillic contraction of her birth surname, and she adopted the first name ''Ayn'', either from a Finnish name or from the Hebrew word (''ayin'', meaning "eye").

In the fall of 1925, Rand was granted a visa to visit American relatives. Rand was so impressed with the skyline of Manhattan upon her arrival in New York Harbor that she cried what she later called "tears of splendor". Intent on staying in the United States to become a screenwriter, she lived for a few months with relatives in Chicago, one of whom owned a movie theater and allowed her to watch dozens of films for free. She then set out for Hollywood, California.

Initially, Rand struggled in Hollywood and took odd jobs to pay her basic living expenses. A chance meeting with famed director Cecil B. DeMille led to a job as an extra in his film, ''The King of Kings'', and to subsequent work as a junior screenwriter. While working on ''The King of Kings'', she met an aspiring young actor, Frank O'Connor; the two were married on April 15, 1929. Rand became an American citizen in 1931. Taking various jobs during the 1930s to support her writing, Rand worked for a time as the head of the costume department at RKO Studios. She made several attempts to bring her parents and sisters to the United States, but they were unable to acquire permission to emigrate.

Early fiction

Rand's first literary success came with the sale of her screenplay ''Red Pawn'' to Universal Studios in 1932, although it was never produced. This was followed by the courtroom drama ''Night of January 16th'', first produced in Hollywood in 1934 and then successfully reopened on Broadway in 1935. Each night the "jury" was selected from members of the audience, and one of the two different endings, depending on the jury's "verdict", would then be performed. In 1941, Paramount Pictures produced a movie version of the play. Rand did not participate in the production and was highly critical of the result.

Rand's first novel, the semi-autobiographical ''We the Living'', was published in 1936. Set in Soviet Russia, it focused on the struggle between the individual and the state. In the foreword to the novel, Rand stated that ''We the Living'' "is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write. It is not an autobiography in the literal, but only in the intellectual sense. The plot is invented, the background is not..." Initial sales were slow and the American publisher let it go out of print, although European editions continued to sell. After the success of her later novels, Rand was able to release a revised version in 1959 that has since sold over three million copies. Without Rand's knowledge or permission, the novel was made into a pair of Italian films, ''Noi vivi'' and ''Addio, Kira'', in 1942. Rediscovered in the 1960s, these films were re-edited into a new version which was approved by Rand and re-released as ''We the Living'' in 1986.

Her novella ''Anthem'' was written during a break from the writing of her next major novel, ''The Fountainhead''. It presents a vision of a dystopian future world in which totalitarian collectivism has triumphed to such an extent that even the word 'I' has been forgotten and replaced with 'we'. It was published in England in 1938, but Rand initially could not find an American publisher. As with ''We the Living'', Rand's later success allowed her to get a revised version published in 1946, which has sold more than 3.5 million copies.

''The Fountainhead'' and political activism

During the 1940s, Rand became involved in political activism. Both she and her husband worked full time in volunteer positions for the 1940 Presidential campaign of Republican Wendell Willkie. This work led to Rand's first public speaking experiences, including fielding the sometimes hostile questions from New York City audiences who had just viewed pro-Willkie newsreels, an experience she greatly enjoyed. This activity also brought her into contact with other intellectuals sympathetic to free-market capitalism. She became friends with journalist Henry Hazlitt and his wife, and Hazlitt introduced her to the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises. Despite her philosophical differences with them, Rand strongly endorsed the writings of both men throughout her career, and both of them expressed admiration for her. Once von Mises referred to Rand as "the most courageous man in America," a compliment that particularly pleased her because he said "man" instead of "woman." Rand also developed a friendship with libertarian writer Isabel Paterson. Rand questioned the well-informed Paterson about American history and politics long into the night during their numerous meetings and gave Paterson ideas for her only nonfiction book, ''The God of the Machine''.

Rand's first major success as a writer came with ''The Fountainhead'' in 1943, a romantic and philosophical novel that she wrote over a period of seven years. The novel centers on an uncompromising young architect named Howard Roark and his struggle against what Rand described as "second-handers"—those who attempt to live through others, placing others above self. It was rejected by twelve publishers before finally being accepted by the Bobbs-Merrill Company on the insistence of editor Archibald Ogden, who threatened to quit if his employer did not publish it. While completing the novel, Rand was prescribed the amphetamine Benzedrine to fight fatigue. The drug helped her to work long hours to meet her deadline for delivering the finished novel, but when the book was done, she was so exhausted that her doctor ordered two weeks' rest. Her continued use of the drug for a number of years may have contributed to what some of her later associates described as volatile mood swings.

''The Fountainhead'' eventually became a worldwide success, bringing Rand fame and financial security. In 1943, Rand sold the rights for a film version to Warner Bros., and she returned to Hollywood to write the screenplay. Finishing her work on that screenplay, she was hired by producer Hal Wallis as a screenwriter and script-doctor. Her work for Wallis included the screenplays for the Oscar-nominated ''Love Letters'' and ''You Came Along''. This role gave Rand time to work on other projects, including a planned nonfiction treatment of her philosophy to be called ''The Moral Basis of Individualism''. Although the planned book was never completed, a condensed version was published as an essay titled "The Only Path to Tomorrow", in the January 1944 edition of ''Reader's Digest'' magazine.

While working in Hollywood, Rand extended her involvement with free-market and anti-communist activism. She became involved with the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a Hollywood anti-Communist group, and wrote articles on the group's behalf. She also joined the anti-Communist American Writers Association. A visit by Isabel Paterson to meet with Rand's California associates led to a final falling out between the two when Paterson made comments that Rand saw as rude to valued political allies. In 1947, during the Second Red Scare, Rand testified as a "friendly witness" before the United States House Un-American Activities Committee. Her testimony described the disparity between her personal experiences in the Soviet Union and the portrayal of it in the 1944 film ''Song of Russia''. Rand argued that the film grossly misrepresented conditions in the Soviet Union, portraying life there as being much better and happier than it actually was. When asked about her feelings on the effectiveness of the investigations after the hearings, Rand described the process as "futile".

After several delays, the film version of ''The Fountainhead'' was released in 1949. Although it used Rand's screenplay with minimal alterations, she "disliked the movie from beginning to end," complaining about its editing, acting and other elements.

''Atlas Shrugged'' and Objectivism

After the publication of ''The Fountainhead'', Rand received numerous letters from readers, some of whom it had profoundly influenced. In 1951 Rand moved from Los Angeles to New York City, where she gathered a group of these admirers around her. This group (jokingly designated "The Collective") included future Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, a young psychology student named Nathan Blumenthal (later Nathaniel Branden) and his wife Barbara, and Barbara's cousin Leonard Peikoff. At first the group was an informal gathering of friends who met with Rand on weekends at her apartment to discuss philosophy. Later she began allowing them to read the drafts of her new novel, ''Atlas Shrugged'', as the manuscript pages were written. In 1954 Rand's close relationship with the much younger Nathaniel Branden turned into a romantic affair, with the consent of their spouses.

''Atlas Shrugged'', published in 1957, was Rand's ''magnum opus''. Rand described the theme of the novel as "the role of the mind in man's existence—and, as a corollary, the demonstration of a new moral philosophy: the morality of rational self-interest." It advocates the core tenets of Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and expresses her concept of human achievement. The plot involves a dystopian United States in which the most creative industrialists, scientists and artists go on strike and retreat to a mountainous hideaway where they build an independent free economy. The novel's hero and leader of the strike, John Galt, describes the strike as "stopping the motor of the world" by withdrawing the minds of the individuals most contributing to the nation's wealth and achievement. With this fictional strike, Rand intended to illustrate that without the efforts of the rational and productive, the economy would collapse and society would fall apart. The novel includes elements of mystery and science fiction, and it contains Rand's most extensive statement of Objectivism in any of her works of fiction, a lengthy monologue delivered by Galt. ''Atlas Shrugged'' became an international bestseller, and in an interview with Mike Wallace, Rand declared herself "the most creative thinker alive." ''Atlas Shrugged'' was to be Rand's last work of fiction; a turning point in her life, it marked the end of Rand's career as a novelist and the beginning of her role as a popular philosopher. After completing the novel of more than one thousand pages, however, Rand fell into a severe depression that may have been aggravated by her use of prescription amphetamines.

In 1958 Nathaniel Branden established Nathaniel Branden Lectures, later incorporated as the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI), to promote Rand's philosophy. Collective members gave lectures for NBI and wrote articles for Objectivist periodicals that she edited. Rand later published some of these articles in book form. Critics, including some former NBI students and Branden himself, have described the culture of NBI as one of intellectual conformity and excessive reverence for Rand, with some describing NBI or the entire Objectivist movement as a cult or religion. Rand expressed opinions on a wide range of topics, including literature, music, sexuality, even facial hair, and some of her followers mimicked all her preferences, wearing clothes to match characters from her novels and buying furniture like hers. Rand was unimpressed with many of the NBI students and held them to strict standards, sometimes reacting coldly or angrily to those who disagreed with her. However, some former NBI students believe the extent of these behaviors has been exaggerated, with the problem being concentrated among Rand's closest followers in New York.

Later years

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Rand developed and promoted her Objectivist philosophy through her nonfiction works and by giving talks to students at institutions such as Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, Harvard University and MIT. She received an honorary doctorate from Lewis & Clark College in 1963. She also began delivering annual lectures at the Ford Hall Forum, responding afterward in her famously spirited form to questions from the audience. During these speeches and Q&A; sessions, she often took controversial stances on political and social issues of the day. These included supporting abortion rights, opposing the Vietnam War and the military draft (but condemning many draft dodgers as "bums"), supporting Israel in the Arab-Israeli War of 1973 as "civilized men fighting savages", saying European colonists had the right to take land from American Indians, and calling homosexuality "immoral" and "disgusting", while also advocating the repeal of all laws against it. She also endorsed several Republican candidates for President of the United States, most strongly Barry Goldwater in 1964, whose candidacy she promoted in several articles for ''The Objectivist Newsletter''. In 1964 Nathaniel Branden began an affair with the young actress Patrecia Scott, whom he later married. Nathaniel and Barbara Branden kept the affair hidden from Rand. When she learned of it in 1968, though her romantic relationship with Branden had already ended, Rand terminated her relationship with both Brandens, which led to the closure of NBI. Rand published an article in ''The Objectivist'' repudiating Nathaniel Branden for dishonesty and other "irrational behavior in his private life." Branden later apologized in an interview to "every student of Objectivism" for "perpetuating the Ayn Rand mystique" and for "contributing to that dreadful atmosphere of intellectual repressiveness that pervades the Objectivist movement."

A heavy smoker, Rand underwent surgery for lung cancer in 1974. Several more of her closest associates parted company with her and during the late 1970s her activities within the Objectivist movement declined, especially after the death of her husband, on November 9, 1979. One of her final projects was work on a never-completed television adaptation of ''Atlas Shrugged''.

Rand died of heart failure on March 6, 1982, at her home in New York City, and was interred in the Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York. Rand's funeral was attended by some of her prominent followers, including Alan Greenspan. A six-foot floral arrangement in the shape of a dollar sign was placed near her casket. In her will, Rand named Leonard Peikoff the heir to her estate.

Philosophy

Rand named her philosophy "Objectivism", describing its essence as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." She considered Objectivism a systematic philosophy and laid out positions on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy and esthetics.

In metaphysics, Rand embraced philosophical realism and atheism, and opposed anything she regarded as mysticism or supernaturalism, including all forms of religion. In epistemology, she considered all knowledge to be based on sense perception, the validity of which she considered axiomatic, and reason, which she described as "the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses." She rejected all claims of non-perceptual or ''a priori'' knowledge, including "'instinct,' 'intuition,' 'revelation,' or any form of 'just knowing.'" In her ''Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology'', Rand presented a theory of concept formation and endorsed the rejection of the analytic–synthetic dichotomy.

In ethics, Rand argued for rational egoism (rational self-interest), as the guiding moral principle. She said the individual should "exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself." She controversially referred to egoism as "the virtue of selfishness" in her book of that title, in which she presented her solution to the is-ought problem by describing a meta-ethical theory that based morality in the needs of "man's survival ''qua'' man". She condemned ethical altruism as incompatible with the requirements of human life and happiness, and held that the initiation of force was evil and irrational, writing in ''Atlas Shrugged'' that "Force and mind are opposites".

Rand's political philosophy emphasized individual rights (including property rights), and she considered ''laissez-faire'' capitalism the only moral social system because in her view it was the only system based on the protection of those rights. She was a fierce opponent of all forms of collectivism and statism, including fascism, communism, socialism, and the welfare state. Rand believed rights should be enforced by a constitutionally limited government. Although her political views are often classified as conservative or libertarian, she preferred the term "radical for capitalism". She worked with conservatives on political projects, but she disagreed with them (and they with her) over issues such as religion and ethics. She denounced libertarianism, which she associated with anarchism. She rejected anarchism as a naïve theory based in subjectivism that could only lead to collectivism in practice. Some non-Objectivist philosophers, such as Norman P. Barry and Chandran Kukathas, have questioned her consistency in rejecting anarchism, while some self-proclaimed Objectivists called on her to endorse anarcho-capitalism.

Rand's esthetics defined art as a "selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments." According to Rand, art allows philosophical concepts to be presented in a concrete form that can be easily grasped, thereby fulfilling a need of human consciousness. As a writer, the art form Rand focused on most closely was literature, where she considered Romanticism to be the approach that most accurately reflected the existence of human free will. She described her own approach to literature as "romantic realism".

Rand acknowledged Aristotle as her greatest influence and remarked that in the history of philosophy she could only recommend "three A's"—Aristotle, Aquinas, and Ayn Rand. She also found early inspiration in Friedrich Nietzsche, and scholars have found indications of his influence in early notes from Rand's journals, in passages from the first edition of ''We the Living'' (which Rand later revised), and in her overall writing style. However, by the time she wrote ''The Fountainhead'', Rand had turned against Nietzsche's ideas, and the extent of his influence on her even during her early years is disputed. Ayn Rand shared with Nietzsche the cult of human ego, which ''The Fountainhead'' intended to express. That is why she quoted a passage from ''Beyond good and evil'' which illustrates this cult in the manuscript of the book. She nonetheless decided to move it out once ''The Fountainhead'' was going to be published, because of her rejection of Nietzsche's mysticism and irrationalism .

Among the philosophers Rand held in particular disdain was Immanuel Kant, whom she referred to as a "monster" and "the most evil man in history", although Objectivist philosophers George Walsh and Fred Seddon have argued that she misinterpreted Kant and exaggerated their differences.

In 1976, Rand said that her most important contributions to philosophy were her "theory of concepts, [her] ethics, and [her] discovery in politics that evil—the violation of rights—consists of the initiation of force." She believed epistemology was a foundational branch of philosophy and considered the advocacy of reason to be the single most significant aspect of her philosophy, stating, "I am not ''primarily'' an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not ''primarily'' an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows."

Reception and legacy

Reviews

During Rand's lifetime, her work evoked both extreme praise and condemnation. Rand's first novel, ''We the Living'', was admired by the literary critic H.L. Mencken, her Broadway play ''Night of January 16th'' was both a critical and popular success, and ''The Fountainhead'' was hailed by a reviewer in ''The New York Times'' as "masterful". Rand's novels were derided by some critics when they were first published as being long and melodramatic. However, they became bestsellers largely through word of mouth.

The first reviews Rand received were for ''Night of January 16th''. Reviews of the production were largely positive, but Rand considered even positive reviews to be embarrassing because of significant changes made to her script by the producer. Rand believed that her first novel, ''We the Living'', was not widely reviewed, but Rand scholar Michael S. Berliner says "it was the most reviewed of any of her works," with approximately 125 different reviews being published in more than 200 publications. Overall these reviews were more positive than the reviews she received for her later work. Her 1938 novella ''Anthem'' received little attention from reviewers, both for its first publication in England and for subsequent re-issues.

Rand's first bestseller, ''The Fountainhead'', received far fewer reviews than ''We the Living'', and reviewers' opinions were mixed. There was a positive review in ''The New York Times'' that Rand greatly appreciated. The reviewer called Rand "a writer of great power" who wrote "brilliantly, beautifully and bitterly," and stated that "you will not be able to read this masterful book without thinking through some of the basic concepts of our time." There were other positive reviews, but Rand dismissed most of them as either not understanding her message or as being from unimportant publications. Some negative reviews focused on the length of the novel, such as one that called it "a whale of a book" and another that said "anyone who is taken in by it deserves a stern lecture on paper-rationing." Other negative reviews called the characters unsympathetic and Rand's style "offensively pedestrian."

Rand's 1957 novel ''Atlas Shrugged'', was widely reviewed, and many of the reviews were strongly negative. In the ''National Review'', conservative author Whittaker Chambers called the book "sophomoric" and "remarkably silly". He described the tone of the book as "shrillness without reprieve" and accused Rand of supporting the same godless system as the Soviets, claiming "From almost any page of ''Atlas Shrugged'', a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: 'To a gas chamber—go! ''Atlas Shrugged'' received positive reviews from a few publications, including praise from the noted book reviewer John Chamberlain, but Rand scholar Mimi Reisel Gladstein later wrote that "reviewers seemed to vie with each other in a contest to devise the cleverest put-downs," calling it "execrable claptrap" and "a nightmare;" they said it was "written out of hate" and showed "remorseless hectoring and prolixity." Author Flannery O'Connor wrote in a letter to a friend that "The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail."

Rand's nonfiction received far fewer reviews than her novels had. The tenor of the criticism for her first nonfiction book, ''For the New Intellectual'', was similar to that for ''Atlas Shrugged'', with philosopher Sidney Hook likening her certainty to "the way philosophy is written in the Soviet Union", and author Gore Vidal calling her viewpoint "nearly perfect in its immorality". Her subsequent books got progressively less attention from reviewers.

On the 100th anniversary of Rand's birth in 2005, Edward Rothstein, writing for ''The New York Times'', referred to her fictional writing as quaint utopian "retro fantasy" and programmatic neo-Romanticism of the misunderstood artist, while criticizing her characters' "isolated rejection of democratic society". In 2007, book critic Leslie Clark described her fiction as "romance novels with a patina of pseudo-philosophy". In 2009, ''GQ''s critic columnist Tom Carson described her books as "capitalism's version of middlebrow religious novels" such as ''Ben-Hur'' and the ''Left Behind'' series.

Popular interest

In 1991, a survey conducted for the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club asked club members what the most influential book in the respondent's life was. Rand's ''Atlas Shrugged'' was the second most popular choice, after the Bible. Rand's books continue to be widely sold and read, with 25 million copies sold as of 2007 and another 800,000 sold in 2008. (This includes approximately 300,000 copies distributed for free by the Ayn Rand Institute.) Although Rand's influence has been greatest in the United States, there has been international interest in her work.

Rand's contemporary admirers included fellow novelists, such as Ira Levin, Kay Nolte Smith and L. Neil Smith, and later writers such as Erika Holzer and Terry Goodkind have been influenced by her. Other artists who have cited Rand as an important influence on their lives and thought include comic book artist Steve Ditko and musician Neil Peart of Rush. Rand provided a positive view of business, and in response business executives and entrepreneurs have admired and promoted her work. John Allison of BB&T; and Ed Snider of Comcast Spectacor have funded the promotion of Rand's ideas, while Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and John P. Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, among others, have said they consider Rand crucial to their success.

Rand and her works have been referred to in a variety of media. References to her have appeared on television shows including animated sitcoms, live-action comedies, dramas, and game shows. She, or characters based on her, figure prominently (in positive and negative lights) in literary and science fiction novels by prominent American authors. Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of ''Reason'', has remarked that "Rand's is a tortured immortality, one in which she's as likely to be a punch line as a protagonist..." and that "jibes at Rand as cold and inhuman, run through the popular culture." Two movies have been made about Rand's life. A 1997 documentary film, ''Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life'', was nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. ''The Passion of Ayn Rand'', a 1999 television adaptation of the book of the same name, won several awards. Rand's image also appears on a U.S. postage stamp designed by artist Nick Gaetano.

Political influence

Although she rejected the labels "conservative" and "libertarian," Rand has had continuing influence on right-wing politics and libertarianism. Jim Powell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, considers Rand one of the three most important women (along with Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel Paterson) of modern American libertarianism, and David Nolan, one of the founders of the Libertarian Party, stated that "without Ayn Rand, the libertarian movement would not exist." In his history of the libertarian movement, journalist Brian Doherty described her as "the most influential libertarian of the twentieth century to the public at large," and biographer Jennifer Burns referred to her as "the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right."

Despite Rand's untraditionally Republican stance as a pro-choice atheist, the political figures who cite Rand as an influence are most often conservative or libertarian members of the United States Republican Party. A 1987 article in ''The New York Times'' referred to her as the Reagan administration's "novelist laureate". Republican Congressmen and conservative pundits have acknowledged her influence on their lives and recommended her novels.

The late-2000s financial crisis spurred renewed interest in her works, especially ''Atlas Shrugged'', which some saw as foreshadowing the crisis, and opinion articles compared real-world events with the plot of the novel. During this time, signs mentioning Rand and her fictional hero John Galt appeared at Tea Party protests. There was also increased criticism of her ideas, especially from the political left, with critics blaming the economic crisis on her support of selfishness and free markets, particularly through her influence on Alan Greenspan. For example, ''Mother Jones'' remarked that "Rand's particular genius has always been her ability to turn upside down traditional hierarchies and recast the wealthy, the talented, and the powerful as the oppressed", while ''The Nation'' alleged similarities between the "moral syntax of Randianism" and fascism.

Academic reaction

During Rand's lifetime her work received little attention from academic scholars. When the first academic book about Rand's philosophy appeared in 1971, its author declared writing about Rand "a treacherous undertaking" that could lead to "guilt by association" for taking her seriously. A few articles about Rand's ideas appeared in academic journals prior to her death in 1982, many of them in ''The Personalist''. One of these was "On the Randian Argument" by respected libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick, who argued that her meta-ethical argument is unsound and fails to solve the is–ought problem posed by David Hume. Some responses to Nozick by other academic philosophers were also published in ''The Personalist'' arguing that Nozick misstated Rand's case. Academic consideration of Rand as a literary figure during her life was even more limited. Gladstein was unable to find any scholarly articles about Rand's novels when she began researching her in 1973, and only three such articles appeared during the rest of the 1970s.

Since Rand's death in 1982, interest in her work has gradually increased. Historian Jennifer Burns has identified "three overlapping waves" of scholarly interest in Rand, the most recent of which is "an explosion of scholarship" in the 2000s. However, few universities currently include Rand or Objectivism as a philosophical specialty or research area, with many literature and philosophy departments dismissing her as a pop culture phenomenon rather than a subject for serious study.

Academics with an interest in Rand, such as Gladstein, Sciabarra, Allan Gotthelf, Edwin A. Locke and Tara Smith, have taught her work in academic institutions. Sciabarra co-edits the ''Journal of Ayn Rand Studies'', a nonpartisan peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of Rand's philosophical and literary work. In 1987 Gotthelf helped found the Ayn Rand Society, and has been active in sponsoring seminars about Rand and her ideas. Smith has written several academic books and papers on Rand's ideas, including ''Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist'', a volume on Rand's ethical theory published by Cambridge University Press. Rand's ideas have also been made subjects of study at Clemson and Duke universities. Scholars of English and American literature have largely ignored her work, although attention to her literary work has increased since the 1990s.

Some academic philosophers have criticized Rand for what they consider her lack of rigor and limited understanding of philosophical subject matter. ''The Philosophical Lexicon'', a satirical web site maintained by philosophers Daniel Dennett and Asbjørn Steglich-Petersen, defines a 'rand' as: "An angry tirade occasioned by mistaking philosophical disagreement for a personal attack and/or evidence of unspeakable moral corruption." Chris Matthew Sciabarra has called into question the motives of some of Rand's critics because of what he calls the unusual hostility of their criticisms. Sciabarra writes, "The left was infuriated by her anti-communist, pro-capitalist politics, whereas the right was disgusted with her atheism and civil libertarianism."

Rand scholars Douglas Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen, while stressing the importance and originality of her thought, describe her style as "literary, hyperbolic and emotional." Philosopher Jack Wheeler says that despite "the incessant bombast and continuous venting of Randian rage," Rand's ethics are "a most immense achievement, the study of which is vastly more fruitful than any other in contemporary thought." In the ''Literary Encyclopedia'' entry for Rand written in 2001, John Lewis declared that "Rand wrote the most intellectually challenging fiction of her generation". In a 1999 interview in the ''Chronicle of Higher Education,'' Rand scholar Chris Matthew Sciabarra commented, "I know they laugh at Rand," while forecasting a growth of interest in her work in the academic community.

Objectivist movement

In 1985, Rand's heir Leonard Peikoff established the Ayn Rand Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading Rand's ideas and promoting her works. In 1990, philosopher David Kelley founded the Institute for Objectivist Studies, now known as The Atlas Society. In 2001 historian John McCaskey organized the Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship, which provides grants for scholarly work on Objectivism in academia. The charitable foundation of BB&T; Corporation has also given grants for teaching Rand's ideas or works. The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Pittsburgh, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are among the schools that have received grants. In some cases these grants have been controversial due to their requiring research or teaching related to Rand.

Selected works

References

Works cited

External links

Ayn Rand Biographical FAQ from the Objectivism Reference Center

Frequently Asked Questions About Ayn Rand from the Ayn Rand Institute

What's Living and Dead in Ayn Rand's Moral and Political Thought by the Cato Institute

Rand's papers at The Library of Congress

Ayn Rand Lexicon – searchable database

Category:1905 births Category:1982 deaths Category:20th-century philosophers Category:American anti-communists Category:American atheists Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:American essayists Category:American novelists Category:American philosophers Category:American screenwriters Category:American writers of Russian descent Category:Anti-Christianity Category:Atheist philosophers Category:Atheism activists Category:Burials at Kensico Cemetery Category:Deaths from heart failure Category:Jewish atheists Category:Libertarian theorists Category:Objectivists Category:Pseudonymous writers Category:Russian atheists Category:Saint Petersburg State University alumni Category:Soviet emigrants to the United States Category:Women philosophers Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Metaphysicians Category:Epistemologists Category:Ethicists Category:Philosophers of mind Category:Political philosophers Category:Political theorists

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name	David Ackles
background	solo_singer
born	February 27, 1937Rock Island, Illinois, USA
died	March 02, 1999Tujunga, California, USA
occupation	singer-songwriter
label	Elektra RecordsColumbia Records
website	davidackles.com
notable instruments	piano }}

David Thomas Ackles (February 27, 1937 – March 2, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter. He recorded four albums between 1968 and 1973.

Describing Ackles's style in 2003, critic Colin McElligatt wrote, "An unlikely clash of anachronistic show business and modern-day lyricism...deeply informs his recorded output. Alternately calling to mind Hoagy Carmichael, Irving Berlin, Robbie Robertson, Tim Hardin, and Scott Walker, Ackles forged an utterly unique sound out of stray parts that comprise a whole that is as uncompromising as it is unrivaled."

Although he never gained wide commercial success, he influenced other artists, especially British singer-songwriters such as Elvis Costello, Elton John and Phil Collins, all of whom are self-declared fans of Ackles. After Ackles's death Costello said, "It's a mystery to me why his wonderful songs are not better known."

Early life

Ackles said of his birthplace, Rock Island, Illinois: "Not a bad place for an incipient songwriter to get a start." His mother came from a family of English music hall performers and his father was a musician. His family moved to Southern California, and Los Angeles became his lifelong home.

For a few years Ackles was a child actor, appearing in six of the eight films in Columbia Pictures' ''Rusty'' children's film series made from 1945 to 1949. He played the character "Peanuts" in the second film in the series (1946's ''The Return Of Rusty,'' directed by William Castle) and the uncredited role of Roger "Tuck" Worden in the latter five.

His song "Family Band," on the ''American Gothic'' album, "has often been mistaken for a parody, but the story of singing hymns in church on a Sunday evening, 'when my dad played bass, my mom played the drums, and I played piano, and Jesus sang the song,'" was autobiographical. "I come from a very strong, almost doctrinaire Christian background, having been raised — God help me — a Presbyterian." he said. "He was a deeply religious and spiritual man," his wife said of him, "a privately spiritual man who did in fact take part in a community of the church, had a daily ritual of prayer." "[G]oing to church, thinking of things spiritually and having a close relationship with God was very important to him." She thought this may have added to his estrangement from the pop music business of the 1970s.

As children he and his sister performed vaudeville-style duets; they later "mutated" into a folk duo. "We sang the most obscure folk songs we could find. The more obscure they were, the more people liked them." He had known from childhood that he wanted to write songs and produce music. ("But a recording artist? Not on your life!")

He studied English literature at the University of Southern California, spending his junior year at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied "West Saxon, the origins of the English language." He earned a masters degree in Film Studies at USC. In 1997, when asked why he chose to major in English rather than music, he said, "I wanted to learn to do it all, which meant learning the construction of poetry, so I could write my own lyrics and play construction so that I could write the book to whatever musical I was creating. In the end, it in no way limited my horizons, being an English major. In fact it opened up the possibility to do so many things." His wife said, "His ultimate goal when he was younger was to write, produce, direct, design the sets, do the music, and star in his work. And he could have done it. That's where his heart was."

While working a string of rent-paying jobs after college — "private detective, security guard and circus roustabout" — he was simultaneously composing "musicals, ballet scores and choral pieces. These early experiences and enthusiasms were to leave a mark on his songwriting, and helped form a distinctively theatrical singing style."

Starting music career

Ackles began his recording career as a staff songwriter for Jac Holzman at Elektra Records. None of the songs he wrote were right for any of Elektra's artists, and Holzman suggested that Ackles record his own work. His first album, the eponymous ''David Ackles'' (1968), did not achieve commercial success, even when reissued in 1971 as ''The Road to Cairo,'' but it was influential among singer-songwriters and featured future members of the group Rhinoceros. This and his follow-up 1969 release, ''Subway to the Country'', contained songs that melded strong theatrical influences with piano-based rock. His songs reflected the views of their character-narrators, many of whom were societal outcasts. In this way he presaged many of the songs of Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle.

''Subway to the Country'' was given a larger budget. At first he and Al Kooper tried recording the tracks in a "stripped-back country-rock style," then classically-trained composer Fred Myrow was brought in to arrange and conduct. Twenty-two musicians are credited on the album. Now that Ackles could employ strings, winds, brass and choruses, his elaborate musical style began to develop.

He toured with his songs when he had to, but in spite of his stage experience he was not a showman. His wife recalled that performing live "was very difficult for him....I just don't think he was comfortable being up there as David Ackles. If he was asked to go on and sing and play as Oscar Levant, it might have been easier for him. Any theater piece would have been fine. But to be out there just kind of exposing your soul, I think, was extremely difficult."

''American Gothic'' (1972)

''American Gothic,'' released in 1972, was produced by Elton John's lyricist Bernie Taupin. Taupin and Ackles became acquainted when Ackles was selected to be the opening act for Elton John's 1970 American debut at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Taupin said of Ackles's style, "There was nothing quite like it. It's been said so many times, but his stuff was sort of [like] Brecht and Weill, and theatrical. It was very different than what the other singer-songwriters of the time were doing. There was also a darkness to it, which I really, really loved, because that was the kind of material that I was drawn to."

Though the album was recorded and mixed in about two weeks, Ackles worked for two years on its conception and "immensely complex" orchestral arrangements. Of Ackles's four albums, it was the only one recorded in England rather than in America. He used musicians from the London Symphony and a Salvation Army band chorus ("'The only trouble is, it's not the same as the American Salvation Army, so they were elongating all their a's, and he kept saying, "No no no, you've got to get rid of that accent"'"). Elektra gave Ackles his biggest budget to date to complete the project and advertised it pre-release as "The Album of the Year." The album was highly acclaimed by music critics in the US and UK: Melody Maker called it a classic and the influential British music critic Derek Jewell of ''The Sunday Times'' UK version described it as "the ''Sgt. Pepper'' of folk." But sales were again disappointing; it reached only #167 on the US charts.

Later career

After three albums for Elektra, Ackles left the label. He was signed to CBS/Columbia Records by legendary record executive Clive Davis, then president of the company and a long-time Ackles admirer. As he tried to create his first album for Columbia he felt the pressure of expectations engendered by ''American Gothic's'' glowing reviews. All too aware that his last album had been called "a milestone in pop and a study in excellence" and "a new direction in pop music" and himself "'an important artist whose work eludes categorisation,'" Ackles began to second-guess himself. "[E]very idea he came up with he discarded, thinking, 'This is not as good as ''American Gothic.'''" He withdrew from the recording studio and produced ''Five and Dime'' at home on a four-track recorder. Uncharacteristically he brought in "a modest and simple record" on time and under budget. But before ''Five and Dime'' was released, Clive Davis was abruptly dismissed by CBS over an expenses dispute. With the loss of the only executive who had championed it, the new Ackles album fared poorly. It was peremptorily released — the same month Davis was — only in the US, and Columbia would not finance a tour to promote it. Columbia did not renew his contract and Ackles, hurt and frustrated, did not search for another record deal.

Personal life

After leaving Columbia Records in 1973, Ackles concentrated on fulfilling his publishing contract with Warner Bros., writing songs to order for the company's artists. As had been the case in Ackles's early Elektra days, none of the songs were recorded by the artists to whom they were pitched. He worked on musical theater and screenplays from the home base he shared with his wife and son, a six-acre horse farm in Tujunga, near Los Angeles. He sold some screenplays to television; one that was broadcast was ''Word of Honor'' (1981) starring Karl Malden and Ron Silver.

In 1981 his car was hit by a drunk driver. Ackles's left arm was nearly severed and his left thighbone "virtually pushed out through his back." He remembered his wife "standing outside the operating theater, shouting, 'Don't cut off his arm! He's a piano player!'" He spent six months in a wheelchair, eventually receiving a steel hip. Though by 1984 he was able to play piano for short periods, his arm's nerves never recovered, and he "may have been in considerable pain for the rest of his life."

In the 1980s he returned to USC, first in administration, then teaching musical theater. At USC in 1997 he directed productions of ''Good News'' and ''The Threepenny Opera,'' and in the 1990s completed ''Sister Aimee,'' a musical based on the life of Aimee Semple McPherson, which was performed in Los Angeles in 1995 and in Chicago in 2004. He and Rob Dickins of Warner Music UK discussed recording ''Sister Aimee.'' He was the executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Society of Fund-Raising Executives (now the National Association of Fundraising Professionals) and was a part of the Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in Los Angeles (now the Academy of New Musical Theatre).

Ackles died of lung cancer on March 2, 1999, at the age of 62.

Legacy

When Elvis Costello was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, he cited Ackles in his speech as one of his major influences. In the November 2000 issue of ''Vanity Fair'' magazine, Costello identified two of Ackles's albums among his "500 Greatest Albums Ever," describing Ackles as "perhaps the greatest unheralded songwriter of the late 60s."

When Phil Collins was on the British BBC radio show ''Desert Island Discs'', he selected Ackles's song "Down River" as one of his eight all-time favorite songs. He said of Ackles: "He taught me that writing songs didn’t have to be moon/spoon/June. That you could write intelligently about more serious subjects."

Elton John and Elvis Costello — two of Ackles's most fervent admirers — chose "Down River" to perform as their first-ever duet together for the finale of the premiere episode of Costello's TV series ''Spectacle: Elvis Costello with....''

Interviewed in 1990 for the booklet accompanying his ''To Be Continued'' retrospective box-set, Elton John recalled his incredulity when he discovered that Ackles had been selected to be his co-headlining opening act for his American debut at the Troubadour club in Los Angeles in August 1970. "I could not believe that I was on the same stage with someone like David Ackles who opened for me at the Troubadour. David Ackles was one of my heroes."

At the Troubadour John made a point of watching Ackles play every night. He was "flabbergasted" to discover that Ackles was far better known in England than in the United States, or even L.A. He dedicated 1970's ''Tumbleweed Connection'' to Ackles with the line, "to David with love." Almost thirty years later, though Ackles had not recorded since 1973, John said, "He's one of the best America has to offer."

Ackles's songs were occasionally covered. In 1968, Julie Driscoll & the Brian Auger Trinity had a minor UK hit with Ackles's song "Road to Cairo." This song was also covered by Howard Jones in 1990 on Elektra Records' compilation ''Rubáiyát.'' Martin Carthy covered one of his songs, "His Name is Andrew," on his 1971 album ''Landfall,'' and Spooky Tooth’s 1970 album ''The Last Puff'' included their version of “Down River.”

His first three albums were reissued in 1994 and again in 2000. The 1994 Elektra reissues generated modest sales and a number of praise-filled articles, which raised hopes that Ackles was on the verge of a new career as a rediscovered cult favorite. Not long before his death in 1999, there was a resurgence of interest in the UK.

After his death, there were obituaries in several major British newspapers that eulogized Ackles's talent.

Discography

''David Ackles'' — (Elektra Records; September 1968)

''Subway to the Country'' — (Elektra Records; January 1970)

''American Gothic'' — (Elektra Records; July 1972)

''Five & Dime'' — (Columbia Records; 1973)

References

External links

Official David Ackles Website

Category:1937 births Category:1999 deaths Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Musicians from California Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:Elektra Records artists

pl:David Ackles fi:David Ackles sv:David Ackles

region	Western Economists
Era	20th-century Economists(Austrian Economics)
Color	#B0C4DE
image	MurrayBW.jpg
name	Murray Newton Rothbard
school tradition	Austrian School
Birth date	March 02, 1926
Birth place	Bronx, New York, United States
Death date	January 07, 1995
Death place	New York City, New York, U.S.
School tradition	Austrian School
Main interests	Economics, Political economy, Anarchism, Natural law, Praxeology, Numismatics, Philosophy of law, Ethics, Economic history
Influences	Aristotle, Aquinas, Böhm-Bawerk, La Boétie, Burke, Chodorov, Hayek, Wilder Lane, Laozi, Locke, Mencken, Menger, Mises, Molinari, Nock, Oppenheimer, Rand, Say, Schumpeter, Spencer, Spooner, Tucker, Turgot
Influenced	Hoppe, Rockwell, Konkin, Narveson, Heath, Callahan, Raico, Salerno, Sobran, Stringham, McElroy, Tucker, Bylund, Long, Caplan, Murphy, Lottieri, Woods, Kinsella, Nozick, Molyneux, Thornton, Horton, Raimondo, DiLorenzo, Block, von NotHaus, the Tannehills, Paul, Higgs
Notable ideas	Founder of Anarcho-capitalism }}

Murray Newton Rothbard (March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American author and economist of the Austrian School who helped define capitalist libertarianism and popularized a form of free-market anarchism he termed "anarcho-capitalism." Rothbard wrote over twenty books and is considered a centrally important figure in the American libertarian movement.

Building on the Austrian School's concept of spontaneous order, support for a free market in money production and condemnation of central planning, Rothbard advocated abolition of coercive government control of society and the economy. He considered the monopoly force of government the greatest danger to liberty and the long-term well-being of the populace, labeling the State as nothing but a "gang of thieves writ large"—the locus of the most immoral, grasping and unscrupulous individuals in any society.

Rothbard concluded that all services provided by monopoly governments could be provided more efficiently by the private sector. He viewed many regulations and laws ostensibly promulgated for the "public interest" as self-interested power grabs by scheming government bureaucrats engaging in dangerously unfettered self-aggrandizement, as they were not subject to market disciplines. Rothbard held that there were inefficiencies involved with government services and asserted that market disciplines would eliminate them, if the services could be provided by competition in the private sector.

Rothbard was equally condemning of state corporatism. He criticized many instances where business elites co-opted government's monopoly power so as to influence laws and regulatory policy in a manner benefiting them at the expense of their competitive rivals.

He argued that taxation represents coercive theft on a grand scale, and "a compulsory monopoly of force" prohibiting the more efficient voluntary procurement of defense and judicial services from competing suppliers. He also considered central banking and fractional reserve banking under a monopoly fiat money system a form of state-sponsored, legalized financial fraud, antithetical to libertarian principles and ethics. Rothbard opposed military, political, and economic interventionism in the affairs of other nations.

Life and work

Rothbard was born to David and Rae Rothbard, who raised their Jewish family in the Bronx. His father worked as a chemist and migrated to the US from Poland, while his mother came from Russia. "I grew up in a Communist culture," he recalled. He attended Columbia University, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and economics in 1945 and a Master of Arts degree in 1946. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in economics in 1956 at Columbia under Joseph Dorfman.

During the early 1950s, he studied under the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises at his seminars at New York University and was greatly influenced by Mises' book ''Human Action''. Rothbard attracted the attention of the William Volker Fund, the main group that supported classical liberal scholars in the 1950s and early 1960s. He began a project to write a textbook to explain Human Action in a fashion suitable for college students; a sample chapter he wrote on money and credit won Mises’s approval. As Rothbard continued his work, he transformed the project. The result, ''Man, Economy, and State'', was a central work of Austrian economics. From 1963 to 1985, he taught at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, later to become part of New York University in Brooklyn, New York. From 1986 until his death he was a distinguished professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Rothbard founded the Center for Libertarian Studies in 1976 and the ''Journal of Libertarian Studies'' in 1977. He was associated with the 1982 creation of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and later was its academic vice president. In 1987 he started the scholarly ''Review of Austrian Economics'', now called the ''Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics''.

In 1953 in New York City he married JoAnn Schumacher, whom he called the "indispensable framework" for his life and work. He died in 1995 in Manhattan of a heart attack. The ''New York Times'' obituary called Rothbard "an economist and social philosopher who fiercely defended individual freedom against government intervention."

Austrian School writings

The Austrian School attempts to discover axioms of human action (called "praxeology" in the Austrian tradition). It supports free market economics and criticizes command economies. Influential advocates were Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Friedrich Hayek, and Ludwig von Mises. Rothbard argued that the entire Austrian economic theory is the working out of the logical implications of the fact that humans engage in purposeful action. In working out these axioms he came to the position that a monopoly price could not exist on the free market. He also anticipated much of the “rational expectations” viewpoint in economics.

In accordance with his free market views Rothbard argued that individual protection and national defense also should be offered on the market, rather than supplied by government’s coercive monopoly. Rothbard was an ardent critic of Keynesian economic thought as well as the utilitarian theory of philosopher Jeremy Bentham.

In ''Man, Economy, and State'' Rothbard divides the various kinds of state intervention in three categories: "autistic intervention", which is interference with private non-exchange activities; "binary intervention", which is forced exchange between individuals and the state; and "triangular intervention", which is state-mandated exchange between individuals. According to Sanford Ikeda, Rothbard's typology "eliminates the gaps and inconsistencies that appear in Mises's original formulation."

Rothbard also was knowledgeable in history and political philosophy. Rothbard's books, such as ''Man, Economy, and State'', ''Power and Market'', ''The Ethics of Liberty'', and ''For a New Liberty'', are considered by some to be classics of natural law and libertarian thought, combining libertarian natural rights philosophy, anti-government anarchism and a free market perspective in analyzing a range of contemporary social and economic issues. He also possessed extensive knowledge of the history of economic thought, studying the pre-Adam Smith free market economic schools, such as the Scholastics and the Physiocrats and discussed them in his unfinished, multi-volume work, ''An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought''.

Rothbard writes in ''Power and Market'' that the role of the economist in a free market is limited, but the role and power of the economist in a government which continually intervenes in the market expands, as the interventions trigger problems which require further diagnosis and the need for further policy recommendations. Rothbard argues that this simple self-interest prejudices the views of many economists in favor of increased government intervention.

Rothbard also created "Rothbard's law" that "people tend to specialize in what they are worst at. Henry George, for example, is great on everything but land, so therefore he writes about land 90% of the time. Friedman is great except on money, so he concentrates on money."

Political views

Rothbard "was the leading theorist of radical Lockean libertarianism combined with Austrian economics, which demonstrates that free markets produce widespread prosperity, social cooperation, and economic coordination without monopoly, depression, or inflation—evils whose roots are to be found in government intervention." He "combined the ''laissez-faire'' economics of his teacher Ludwig von Mises with the absolutist views of human rights and rejection of the state he had absorbed from studying the individualist American anarchists of the nineteenth century such as Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker." He connected these to more modern views, writing: "There is, in the body of thought known as 'Austrian economics', a scientific explanation of the workings of the free market (and of the consequences of government intervention in that market) which individualist anarchists could easily incorporate into their political and social Weltanschauung."

Rothbard opposed what he considered the overspecialization of the academy and sought to fuse the disciplines of economics, history, ethics, and political science to create a "science of liberty." Rothbard described the moral basis for his anarcho-capitalist position in two of his books: ''For a New Liberty'', published in 1972, and ''The Ethics of Liberty'', published in 1982. In his ''Power and Market'' (1970), Rothbard describes how a stateless economy might function.

Self-ownership

In ''The Ethics of Liberty'', Rothbard asserts the right of total self-ownership, as the only principle compatible with a moral code that applies to every person—a "universal ethic"—and that it is a natural law by being what is naturally best for man. He believed that, as a result, individuals owned the fruits of their labor. Accordingly, each person had the right to exchange his property with others. He believed that if an individual mixes his labor with unowned land then he is the proper owner, and from that point on it is private property that may only exchange hands by trade or gift. He also argued that such land would tend not to remain unused unless it makes economic sense to not put it to use.

Anti-Egalitarianism

The title essay of Murray Rothbard’s 1974 book ''Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays'' held that “Equality is not in the natural order of things, and the crusade to make everyone equal in every respect (except before the law) is certain to have disastrous consequences.” In it Rothbard wrote, “At the heart of the egalitarian left is the pathological belief that there is no structure of reality; that all the world is a tabula rasa that can be changed at any moment in any desired direction by the mere exercise of human will.” Rothbard also expressed his views that statists suppressed academic research on race in order to support their goal of using the state to enforce egalitarian goals.

In a 1963 article called the “Negro revolution” Rothbard wrote that “the Negro Revolution has some elements that a libertarian must favor, others that he must oppose. Thus, the libertarian opposes compulsory segregation and police brutality, but also opposes compulsory integration and such absurdities as ethnic quota systems in jobs.” According to Rothbard biographer Justin Raimondo, Rothbard considered Malcolm X to be a “great black leader” and Martin Luther King to be favored by whites because he “was the major restraining force on the developing Negro revolution.” Rothbard also compared U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s use of troops to crush urban rioters in 1968 after King’s assassination to Johnson’s use of American troops against the Vietnamese.

Children and rights

In the ''Ethics of Liberty'' Rothbard explores in terms of self-ownership and contract several contentious issues regarding children's rights. These include women's right to abortion, proscriptions on parents aggressing against children once they are born, and the issue of the state forcing parents to care for children, including those with severe health problems. He also holds children have the right to "run away" from parents and seek new guardians as soon as they are able to choose to do so. He suggested parents have the right to put a child out for adoption or even sell the rights to the child in a voluntary contract, which he feels is more humane than artificial governmental restriction of the number of children available to willing and often superior parents. He also discusses how the current juvenile justice system punishes children for making "adult" choices, removes children unnecessarily and against their will from parents, often putting them in uncaring and even brutal foster care or juvenile facilities.

Anarcho-capitalism

Rothbard began to consider himself a private property anarchist in the 1950s and later began to use "anarcho-capitalist". He wrote: "Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism." In his anarcho-capitalist model, a system of protection agencies compete in a free market and are voluntarily supported by consumers who choose to use their protective and judicial services. Anarcho-capitalism would mean the end of the state monopoly on force.

Rothbard was equally condemning of relationships he perceived between big business and big government. He cited many instances where business elites co-opted government's monopoly power so as to influence laws and regulatory policy in a manner benefiting them at the expense of their competitive rivals. He wrote in criticism of Ayn Rand's "misty devotion to the Big Businessman" that she: "is too committed emotionally to worship of the Big Businessman-as-Hero to concede that it is precisely Big Business that is largely responsible for the twentieth-century march into aggressive statism..." According to Rothbard, one example of such cronyism included grants of monopolistic privilege the railroads derived from sponsoring so-called conservation laws.

Free market money

:''See also Free banking and Gold standard'' Rothbard believed the monopoly power of government over the issuance and distribution of money was inherently destructive and unethical. The belief derived from Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek's Austrian theory of the business cycle, which holds that undue credit expansion inevitably leads to a gross misallocation of capital resources, triggering unsustainable credit bubbles and, eventually, economic depressions. He therefore strongly opposed central banking and fractional reserve banking under a fiat money system, labeling it as "legalized counterfeiting" or a form of institutionalized embezzlement and therefore inherently fraudulent. He characterized the government-enforced prohibition on citizens using commodity currencies as legal tender a compulsory Ponzi scheme, one from which no citizen could escape.

He strongly advocated full reserve banking ("100 percent banking") and a voluntary, nongovernmental gold standard or, as a second best solution, free banking (which he also called "free market money").

In relation to the current central bank-managed fractional reserve fiat currency system, he stated the following:

Noninterventionism

Believing like Randolph Bourne that "war is the health of the state", Rothbard opposed aggressive foreign policy. He criticized imperialism and the rise of the American empire which needed war to sustain itself and to expand its global control. His dislike of U.S. imperialism even led him to eulogize and lament the CIA-assisted execution of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara in 1967, proclaiming that "his enemy was our enemy". Rothbard believed that stopping new wars was necessary and knowledge of how government had seduced citizens into earlier wars was important. Two essays expanded on these views "War, Peace, and the State" and "The Anatomy of the State". Rothbard used insights of the elitism theorists Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca, and Robert Michels to build a model of state personnel, goals, and ideology. In an obituary for historian Harry Elmer Barnes, Rothbard explained why historical knowledge is important:

Rothbard discussed his views on the principles of a libertarian foreign policy in a 1973 interview: "minimize State power as much as possible, down to zero, and isolationism is the full expression in foreign affairs of the domestic objective of whittling down State power." He further called for "abstinence from any kind of American military intervention and political and economic intervention." In ''For a New Liberty'' he writes: "In a purely libertarian world, therefore, there would be no 'foreign policy' because there would be no States, no governments with a monopoly of coercion over particular territorial areas."

In "War Guilt in the Middle East" Rothbard details Israel's "aggression against Middle East Arabs," confiscatory policies and its "refusal to let these refugees return and reclaim the property taken from them." Rothbard also criticized the “organized Anti-Anti-Semitism” that critics of the state of Israel have to suffer. Rothbard criticized as terrorism the actions of the United States, Israel, and any nation that "retaliates" against innocents because they cannot pinpoint actual perpetrators. He held that no retaliation that injures or kills innocent people is justified, writing "Anything else is an apologia for unremitting and unending mass murder."

Political activism

As a young man, Rothbard considered himself part of the Old Right, an anti-statist and anti-interventionist branch of the U.S. Republican party. in the 1948 presidential election, Rothbard, "as a Jewish student at Columbia, horrified his peers by organizing a Students for Strom Thurmond chapter, so staunchly did he believe in states’ rights." When interventionist cold warriors of the ''National Review'', such as William F. Buckley, Jr., gained influence in the Republican party in the 1950s, Rothbard quit the party, walking out for good when moderate Dwight Eisenhower defeated Old Right stalwart Robert A. Taft for the 1952 Republican presidential nomination. He would go on to support Democrat Adlai Stevenson in that year's election, "largely as the only way to get the Wall Street incubus off the back of the Republican Party." After Rothbard died, Buckley wrote a bitter obituary in the ''National Review'' criticizing Rothbard's "defective judgment" and views on the Cold War.

During the late 1950s, Rothbard was an associate of Ayn Rand and her philosophy, Objectivism, along with other students of Ludwig von Mises, such as George Reisman. According to Rand biographer Jennifer Burns, Rothbard was introduced to both Aristotelian epistemology and the "whole field" of natural rights through his discussions with Rand, and, at one time, described Rand's novel, ''Atlas Shrugged'', as "not merely the greatest novel ever written, it is one of the very greatest books ever written, fiction or nonfiction." Later, however, he left her circle and lampooned their relationship in his fictionalized play ''Mozart Was a Red''.

By the late 1960s, Rothbard's "long and winding yet somehow consistent road had taken him from anti-New Deal isolationist Robert Taft supporter into friendship with the quasi-pacifist Nebraska Republican Congressman Howard Buffett (father of Warren Buffett) then over to the League of (Adlai) Stevensonian Democrats and, by 1968, into tentative comradeship with the anarchist factions of the New Left." Rothbard advocated an alliance with the New Left anti-war movement, on the grounds that the conservative movement had been completely subsumed by the statist establishment. However, Rothbard later criticized the New Left for supporting a "People's Republic" style draft. It was during this phase that he associated with Karl Hess and founded ''Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought'' with Leonard Liggio and George Resch, which existed from 1965 to 1968. From 1969 to 1984 he edited ''The Libertarian Forum'', also initially with Hess (although Hess's involvement ended in 1971).

Rothbard criticized the "frenzied nihilism" of left-wing libertarians, but also criticized right-wing libertarians who were content to rely only on education to bring down the state; he believed that libertarians should adopt any non-immoral tactic available to them in order to bring about liberty.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Rothbard was active in the Libertarian Party. He was frequently involved in the party's internal politics. He was one of the founders of the Cato Institute, and "came up with the idea of naming this libertarian think tank after ''Cato’s Letters'', a powerful series of British newspaper essays by John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon which played a decisive influence upon America’s Founding Fathers in fomenting the Revolution."

From 1978 to 1983, he was associated with the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus, allying himself with Justin Raimondo, Eric Garris and Williamson Evers. He opposed the "low tax liberalism" espoused by 1980 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Ed Clark and Cato Institute president Edward H Crane III. According to Charles Burris, "Rothbard and Crane became bitter rivals after disputes emerging from the 1980 LP presidential campaign of Ed Clark carried over to strategic direction and management of Cato." Rothbard split with the Radical Caucus at the 1983 national convention over cultural issues, and aligned himself with what he called the "right-wing populist" wing of the party, notably Lew Rockwell and Ron Paul, who ran for President on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1988 and in the 2008 Republican Party Primaries. "Rothbard worked closely with Lew Rockwell (joined later by his long time friend Burt Blumert) in nurturing the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and the publication, ''The Rothbard-Rockwell Report''; which after Rothbard’s 1995 death evolved into the popular website, ''LewRockwell.com''."

In 1989, Rothbard left the Libertarian Party and began building bridges to the post-Cold War anti-interventionist right, calling himself a paleolibertarian. He was the founding president of the conservative-libertarian John Randolph Club and supported the presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan in 1992, saying "with Pat Buchanan as our leader, we shall break the clock of social democracy." However, later he became disillusioned and said Buchanan developed too much faith in economic planning and centralized state power.

According to Lew Rockwell, Rothbard is considered the "dean of the Austrian School of economics, the founder of libertarianism, and an exemplar of the Old Right".

Personal life

In addition to economics, history, and philosophy, Rothbard took an intense personal interest in chess, German Baroque church architecture, and early jazz, among other subjects. Rothbard criticized the "degeneration" of jazz and popular song into bebop and rock music.

In his film reviews (printed under the pen name "Mr. First Nighter"), Rothbard criticized "slow, ponderous, boring" films which "reek of pretension and deliberate boredom," such as ''Juliet of the Spirits'' and ''The Piano''. He generally praised films which represented "Old Culture" values which he felt were exemplified by the James Bond franchise: "marvelous plot, exciting action, hero vs. villains, spy plots, crisp dialogue and the frank enjoyment of bourgeois luxury and fascinating technological gadgets."

Rothbard enjoyed action movies such as ''The Fugitive'' and Hollywood films of the 1930s and 40s, and praised Woody Allen's wit. He disliked ''Star Wars'', "such a silly, cartoony, comic-strip movie that no one can possibly take it seriously," and ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', a "pretentious, mystical, boring, plotless piece of claptrap," calling for a return to science fiction films like ''It Came from Outer Space'' and "the incomparable ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers''."

Bibliography

''Man, Economy, and State'' (Full Text; ISBN 0-945466-30-7) (1962)

''The Panic of 1819'' (Full Text). 1962, 2006 edition: ISBN 1-933550-08-2.

''America's Great Depression''. (Full Text) ISBN 0-945466-05-6. (1963, 1972, 1975, 1983, 2000)

''What Has Government Done to Our Money?'' (Full Text / Audio Book) ISBN 0-945466-44-7. (1963)

''Economic Depressions: Causes and Cures'' (Full Text) (1969)

''Power and Market: Government and the Economy'' (Full Text). ISBN 1-933550-05-8. (1970) (restored to ''Man, Economy, and State'' ISBN 0-945466-30-7, 2004)

''Education: Free and Compulsory'' (Full Text). ISBN 0-945466-22-6. (1972)

''Left and Right, Selected Essays 1954-65'' (1972)

''For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto'' (Full text / Audio book) ISBN 0-945466-47-1. (1973, 1978)

''The Essential von Mises'' (1973)

''The Case for the 100 Percent Gold Dollar''. ISBN 0-945466-34-X. (Full Text / Audio Book) (1974)

''Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays'' ISBN 0-945466-23-4. (1974)

''Conceived in Liberty'' (4 vol.) ISBN 0-945466-26-9. (1975–79)

''Individualism and the Philosophy of the Social Sciences''. ISBN 0-932790-03-8. (1979)

''The Ethics of Liberty'' (Full Text / Audio Book) ISBN 0-8147-7559-4. (1982)

''The Mystery of Banking'' ISBN 0-943940-04-4. (1983)

''Ludwig von Mises: Scholar, Creator, Hero''. . (1988)

''Freedom, Inequality, Primitivism, and the Division of Labor''. Full text (included as Chapter 16 in ''Egalitarianism'' above) (1991)

''The Case Against the Fed'' ISBN 0-945466-17-X. (1994)

''An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought'' (2 vol.) ISBN 0-945466-48-X. (1995)

''Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy''. (Full Text) with an introduction by Justin Raimondo. (1995)

''Making Economic Sense''. ISBN 0-945466-18-8. (1995, 2006)

''Logic of Action'' (2 vol.) ISBN 1-85898-015-1 and ISBN 1-85898-570-6. (1997, reprinted as ''Economic Controversies'' in 2011)

''The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays''. ISBN 0-945466-21-8. (also by Mises, Hayek, & Haberler)

''Irrepressible Rothbard: The Rothbard-Rockwell Report Essays of Murray N. Rothbard''. (Full Text.) (Preface by JoAnn Rothbard) (Introduction by Lew Rockwell.) ISBN 1-883959-02-0. (2000)

''A History of Money and Banking in the United States''. ISBN 0-945466-33-1. (2002)

''The Complete Libertarian Forum'' (2 vol.) (Full Text) ISBN 1-933550-02-3. (1969–84; 2006)

''The Betrayal of the American Right'' ISBN 978-1-933550-13-8 (2007)

''Rothbard vs. the Philosophers'' edited with an introduction by Roberta Modugno ISBN 978-1-9335504-66 (2009)

''Strictly Confidential'' edited by David Gordon (2010)

See also

American philosophy

List of American philosophers

Notes

Further reading

Doherty, Brian. ''Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement''. PublicAffairs. 2007. ISBN 1-58648-350-1

Gordon, David. ''The Essential Rothbard'', Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1st edition. February 26, 2007. ISBN 1-933550-10-4

Raimondo, Justin. ''An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard''. Prometheus Books. July 2000. ISBN 1-57392-809-7

External links

Murray Rothbard at Mises Wiki

Murray N. Rothbard by David Gordon; also includes links to audio clips of Rothbard and the complete text of several books.

Ludwig Von Mises YouTube page including several Rothbard videos

Murray N. Rothbard Library and Resources

Murray N. Rothbard Media Archive at Mises.org

BlackCrayon.com: People: Murray Rothbard

Chronological Bibliography of Murray Rothbard

The Complete Archives of The Libertarian Forum, written about twice a month between 1969 and 1984.

''Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult'' (pamphlet published by the Center for Libertarian Studies)

"It Usually Ends With Ed Crane" - Rothbard's story of what happened with Ed Crane, the CATO institute and the Libertarian party

A 1972 ''New Banner'' interview with Murray Rothbard

A 1990 interview with Murray Rothbard

Why Hans-Hermann Hoppe considers Rothbard the key Austro-libertarian intellectual

Murray N. Rothbard, The Origins of the Federal Reserve, The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics vol. 2, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 3 – 51

Remembering Rothbard: Antiwar Archive, selection of online articles by Rothbard, on foreign policy

Murray Rothbard Institute, Belgium

Murray N. Rotbard, Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty, "Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought," Spring 1965.

Murray N. Rothbard, Newt Gingrich is No Libertarian, ''Washington Post'', Friday, December 30, 1994; Page A17. (Rothbard's last newspaper column, before his death)

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Jeffrey Albert Tucker is the editorial vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a think tank that espouses the Austrian School of economics. He is the current webmaster for the institute's website, Mises.org. Tucker is also an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and an Acton University faculty member.

Work as writer and editor

Tucker compiled an annotated bibliography of the works of Henry Hazlitt, entitled ''Henry Hazlitt: Giant For Liberty'', which is now in print. A Foundation for Economic Education review described the book, which "includes citations of a novel, works on literary criticism, treatises on economics and moral philosophy, several edited volumes, some 16 other books and many chapters in books, plus articles, commentaries, and reviews," as "an apt eulogy of Henry Hazlitt."

As a writer, Tucker has contributed scholarly efforts and humorous essays to LewRockwell.com, Mises.org and elsewhere. Examples of the latter essays include his defense of morning drinking, his advice on "How to Dress Like a Man", his attack on shaving cream, and his admiration for the speedy-service haircut. He is a critic of the Grameen Bank which, along with its founder Muhammad Yunus, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

Catholicism

Tucker is a convert to the Roman Catholic church and is managing editor of ''Sacred Music''. He is one of the leading champions of traditional music in the Catholic Church, and a high-profile member of the "Reform of the Reform" movement. Tucker recently spoke to the National Catholic Register about the importance of sacred music.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/singing-the-mass/

Books

''Sing Like a Catholic'' (2009; also as e-book) ISBN 1-60743-722-8

''Bourbon for Breakfast: Living Outside the Statist Quo'' (2010; also as e-book) ISBN 1-933550-89-9

Notes

External links

Jeffrey Tucker archive at Mises.org

Jeffrey Tucker archive at LewRockwell.com

The Chant Cafe

The New Liturgical Movement Blog

MusicaSacra.com

" Victims on Trial: The Everyday Business of Courts ", by Tucker

"Society in Jail", by Tucker

Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Anarcho-capitalists Category:American anarchists Category:American book editors Category:American essayists Category:American libertarians Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism

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