Conceived in Liberty

by Murray N. Rothbard

For anyone who thinks of Murray Rothbard as only a economic
theorist or political thinker, these four spectacular volumes are nothing short of shocking. They offer a complete history of the Colonial period of American history, a period lost to students today, who are led to believe American history begins with the US Constitution.

Rothbard's ambition was to shed new light on Colonial history and show that the struggle for human liberty was the heart and soul of this land from its discovery through the culminating event of the American Revolution. These volumes are a tour de force, enough to establish Rothbard as one of the great American historians.

Although a detailed narrative history of the struggle between liberty and power, Rothbard offers a third alternative to the conventional interpretive devices. Against those on the right who see the American Revolution as a "conservative" event, and those on the left who want to invoke it as some sort of proto-socialist uprising, Rothbard views this period as a time of accelerating libertarian radicalism. Through this prism, Rothbard illuminates events as never before.

The volumes were brought out in the 1970s, but the odd timing and uneven distribution prevented any kind of large audience. They were beloved only by a few specialists, and sought after by many thanks to their outstanding reputation. The Mises Institute is pleased to be the publisher of the newly available set.

Volume One covers the discovery of the Americas and the colonies in the 17th century (531 pages, including index).

Volume Two covers the period of "salutary neglect" in the first half of the 18th century (294 pages, including index).

Volume Three covers the advance to revolution, from 1760-1775 (373 pages, including index).

Volume Four covers the political, military, and ideological history of the revolution and after (470 pages, including index).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995) distinguished himself as an economist, writing a major treatise on theory, several important economic histories, and a highly praised history of economic thought. But he was also known as the pioneer thinker of libertarianism, the political philosophy that roots freedom in private property ownership and decries the state as inherently contrary to the ethics of a free society. Writing from this perspective, he gained a reputation as the most provocative and influential contributor to the anarchist tradition in our century.

Genres: History, Economics, American History, Politics, Nonfiction, American Revolution, Philosophy

1616 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Murray Newton Rothbard was an influential American historian, natural law theorist and economist of the Austrian School who helped define modern libertarianism. Rothbard took the Austrian School's emphasis on spontaneous order and condemnation of central planning to an individualist anarchist conclusion, which he termed "anarcho-capitalism".

In the 1970s, he assisted Charles Koch and Ed Crane to found the Cato Institute as libertarian think tank.

Reviews

[Zinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I see history as centrally a race and conflict between “social power” — the productive consequence of voluntary interactions among men — and state power. In those eras of history when liberty — social power — has managed to race ahead of state power and control, the country and even mankind have flourished. In those eras when state power has managed to catch up with or surpass social power, mankind suffers and declines.” – Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty, Vol. 1, p. 10.

The above quote pretty much sums up the approach Rothbard took in writing Conceived in Liberty. The struggle between the liberty of the individual and the acquiring and concentration of powers into a group (the state, a religion, or a company) are the gory economic details that Rothbard elaborates on while other history books exclude. This approach, of observing the flow of money and power provides a much more insightful look at history. The book also takes one through the evolution, formation, and realization of what individual liberty is. Unfortunately, many back then, and many more today, fail to see and comprehend this struggle between liberty and tyranny, and thus, I fear we will have to repeat the painful lessons of history rather than move forward and build a better world.

Volume One covers the discovery of the Americas and the colonies in the 17th century.

Volume Two covers the period of "salutary neglect" in the first half of the 18th century.

Volume Three covers the advance to revolution, from 1760-1775.

Volume Four covers the political, military, and ideological history of the revolution and after.

Liberty has always been threatened by the encroachments of power, power which seeks to suppress, control, cripple, tax, and exploit the fruits of liberty and production. This struggle is raging today, and this book has many lessons in it to awaken and motivate us today to continue to fight for liberty.

[Spencer Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible history from early colonial period of the US up to the signing of the Articles of Confederation. Very well researched, very interesting, I learned a lot! This is what history books should be!

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rothbard is most famous (or infamous) as a political philosopher, for such works as For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto. It would be easy enough to dismiss his work as a historian out of hand for this reason, but I think that would be a huge mistake. When I got Conceived in Liberty, I, too, thought it would be a narrative, perhaps a truthful one, certainly one from a valuable perspective, but still a narrative. Narratives are all well and good, but they don't substitute for learning the actual facts and events.

I was pleasantly surprised, then, that Rothbard didn't just write a narrative. This is a bona fide historical textbook (series of textbooks, really), one that painstakingly describes events, quotes witnesses and letters, mentions statistics, and so on. Some impressive sourcework went into it, too, both of primary and secondary sources. Rothbard presents nothing less than a very thorough and very detailed reconstruction of some 250 years of American history. He gives dates, places, names, all you could ask for in a textbook. He relates the individual battles of the American Revolution, that time Pennsylvania was without an effective government for seven years, Benjamin Franklins sheer numberless acts of opportunism (such as drawing up the Mutiny Act of 1765), the "Great Awakening", the Green Mountain Boys, the Regulators and the Sons of Liberty, and a good hundred more events and people.

Of course, Rothbard, being the stereotypical libertarian, talks from a libertarian perspective. I have no doubt his bias sometimes got the better of him, that he didn't relay all the nuances there were to some of the more statist characters he describes, or - more importantly - that he got too euphemistic over such types as John Wilkes, and hence wouldn't see their shortcomings. That is to be expected in any history book, and at least Rothbard is open about possible biases. Most importantly, his history is so detailed that it should be easy enough to disprove him if he got something wrong, or even to disagree with parts of his overall narrative based on the text itself. So, no harm done.

What I particularly liked was that he was capable of grasping religious motivations. I know of surprisingly few authors who are capable of doing so, even among professional historians, yet surprisingly, Rothbard - an agnostic, I believe - pulled it off. He doesn't fall into clichés, either. While his sympathies obviously lie with the Quakers, he does acknowledge that at some point, they lost their pacifistic ways. And as a Catholic, I was particularly glad that he both acknowledged that Maryland was very tolerant when it had a Catholic majority, and that the American Revolution was partially sparked by anti-Catholicism. Speaking of religion, here is one of Rothbards hottest takes: The Salem Witch Trials had nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with politics. They targetted political enemies, and ended as soon as the prosecutors themselves were named by "witnesses". Religion did play a role, but only as a spurious excuse.

As for what I got out of this book, that is a bit hard to say, simply because of its scope. For me, it's the only textbook on early American history that I am going to need for perhaps a few years to come. Not because it is that good, but because I plan to specialize in other periods, like the Middle Ages in general and the Crusades in particular, or early Church history. If I ever decide to read up more on American history, then I am convinced that /b>Conceived in Liberty will provide me with an excellent foundation to build on.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting history of the fight for human freedom from the 1400's to the late 1700's in colonial North America. A documentation of the fight from escaping the old world order represented by the enslavement of people by England at the time and the New World Order represented by freedom in America. Interesting to note the same type of parallels went on back then that we face today. Monopoly capitalism, corporate cronyism, usurpation of man's natural rights to be free, government corruption and human sacrifice. Unfortunately today, and not just in America, we see a modern day New World Order, which is really the Old World Order of the British Empire rearing its ugly head once again just on a more sinister scale through the utilization of technology and fractional reserve banking to bankrupt and control a once free people. The struggle for human freedom and individual rights and private property will always be just that as the American Revolution demonstrated as we continue battling against the ongoing attempts of our enslavement by the corporatist elite and the government threat that wants to eliminate our way of life as a free and sovereign people by discrediting the Declaration of Independence, tearing up the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights as we represent a threat to their power and profits.

[Zachary Moore]

I greatly enjoyed reading this book which was the first book length (or in this case, multi-volume book length) I've ever read on the Revolutionary period in American history. The work is extremely enlightening and Rohtbard's characteristic writing style and his frankness about who the good guys are makes the work highly readable. The work is also interesting as Rothbard clearly views the Revolution from the standpoint of how a libertarian revolution might happen--which tactics of revolution are most effective and which consistent with libertarian theory? A must for anyone interested in libertarianism or in libertarian interpretations of history.

[Rsossel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this the second year I was out here in Portland (2007), having been able to get each volume from different libraries through interlibrary loan. The straightforward style, easily accessible to non-historians, engages and explores one of the more interesting eras of the early colonization of the eastern seaboard of North America.

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conceived in Liberty by Murray Rothbard is a massive effort at Libertarian revisionist history. There's something commendable about Rothbard's work here, as he laboriously details the history of the United States prior to and including the revolution from some of the earliest settlers. The author at several points between volumes stresses that a labored approach to history is needed because all of the summarized epitomes of history have squeezed out the real details of history, leaving behind the interpretations of scholars, academics, and ideologues who give you their interpretation over the real thing. Insofar as that was Rothbard's quest, this work is considerably well done. A length measured above 1600 in pages or over 80 hours in audio, regardless of which medium you take up - the one thing that Rothbard cannot be accused of is skimping on details.

But, unfortunately, there's where some issues start to prop up. Consider me bought and sold on the idea of a better history where the details aren't forced into an ideological generalization. Where there's something a bit off has to do with the presentation of a number of the facts that Rothbard presents, and with his own interpretation of them as they come along. The most overt of these is in connection to anything related to paper currency or centralized authority, but he has a number of bugbears which makes him an at best unreliable narrator of those events which conflict with his worldview. I understand the mission to rebuild history from the ground up, but Conceived in Liberty comes across as carefully curated facts to substantiate his mission. Or, in other words, there's a couple elements of propaganda here and there.

I've read much worse though. Apart from some groan inducing statements here and there, there is something rather interesting about how Rothbard approaches his history. Every volume has an element of revision to it, including his characterizations of the Great Awakening, Salutary Neglect and the Salem Witch Trials. This is something that bubbles in the background, but it becomes its most acute in the last volume. Washington is a petty bureaucratic tyrant jealous of his position, Franklin is a halfhearted revolutionary that betrayed it while in France, and there was a conservative effort to commandeer and control the revolution to establish despotism. Rothbard's also inordinately interested in praising guerilla warfare, which while largely correct, his approach is too simple and overall disregards British and American attempts at non-Guerilla warfare as a comedy of errors.

But the principal thing that Rothbard actually wants the reader to take away from this monumentally massive tome is that the American Revolution was not, under any circumstances, a conservative one. Rothbard divides Britain and America between Whigs and Tories, and then the Whigs in America into left-wing radical libertarians and conservatives and pseudo-aristocrats. He notes a continual tension between the later two groups, and heaps praise upon those figures that he believes are radical libertarians. Conservatives are allies, but ideologically opposed to the fundamental nature of the revolution and a force to be thwarted wherever possible. The revolution was radical and libertarian. Near contemporary efforts to engage in a more conservative revolution failed where tried, and more radical revolutions - such as those in France - ran into errors not because they were more radical, but because of the innate and entrenched powers of aristocrats, conservative bourgeoise, and clergy --- all who had a presence in the American revolution, but were much, much weaker compared to the radical contingent.

And from this you can hear the arguments Rothbard is inserting himself into. His first volumes were mostly against social history connected to Marxist Economic and Ideological histories. Self interest and ideology can coexist together without contradicting each other, he is prone to say. But this last volume has an overt shout out his ideological rival the neoconservatives. The conservatives who must be thwarted in the revolution are, one might presume without much effort on the reader's part, to be of the same lineage of conservatives guiding neoconservative thought. This book came out before their heyday during the War on Terror and their subsequent travails, but it appears like they were already in competition for the ideological heart of the Republican party and the then living conservative movement in America.

I'm not sure who this book will convince, but I imagine that all Libertarians suspicious of state power and in need of a guide to help them engage in ideological myth-busting will turn this into their reference of choice.

I just wish that the principal enterprise, that of a fuller history without the details removed, was done by an author less predisposed to interpolations that can feel rather suspicious if you interrogate sources and comments not mentioned in this book. Its just frankly too selective to receive high marks from me.

But that does leave me and others with a similar predisposition with the unenviable task of stitching together monstrous biographies, some nearly as long as this tome, and compiling a small library of other books, to try to make one out from their own imaginations.

[عدنان العبار · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conceived in Liberty is an economic commentary and account on the history of the United States from the colonial times till the American revolution. If you are very interested in American history, get this book. There’s about a trillion character here, and tons of brutal events that will scar you for life. So, be ready. The book is very enjoyable. I am sure, though, that you will be tempted to skip many chapters. And that’s okay. A 1,700 pages book is a skippable book. The final chapters were my favorite.

(For the Audible version, I just wished the narrator wasn’t so monotone and boring. She reads the whole book in the same tone. If Jeff Riggenbach had read it, I know I would have been 10x more captivated.)

[Ryan Schmitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you count the bibliographical essays, this work is about 1,575 densely spaced pages long in hardcover. I've made several attempts to read it, and I always ended up abandoning it; it was a long time before I was finally able to stick with it and finish it. Now that I finally have, I'm extremely glad to have done so.

The first volume, the longest in the series, deals with the history of the American colonies from Columbus through the end of the seventeenth century. This volume is primarily a religious and economic history of the colonies, but there are some fascinating political tidbits as well, such as the fact that Pennsylvania was essentially anarchist for a significant period of time.

The second volume deals with the period of "salutary neglect" during the first half of the eighteenth century. At this point, the colonies are more or less fully established, but serious British repression had not yet begun. After struggling with the first volume, this is where the narrative really grabbed me: the political situation gets more interesting here, and familiar figures such as Benjamin Franklin and George Washington begin to filter into the narrative.

The third volume is probably the best of the four. The pace of the narrative picks up significantly as salutary neglect gives way to British-imposed mercantilism, establishing the grievances that will inexorably lead to the revolution. Here, Rothbard is on fire, providing extensive insight into the political forces and factions at play here and the various philosophies, ideologies, pecuniary interests, and power struggles behind them.

The fourth volume deals with the period of the war for the revolution, picking up immediately after Lexington & Concord and ending just before the Constitutional Convention and the French Revolution. This volume alternates between military and political history. Rothbard lays great emphasis on the tensions between guerrilla warfare and conventional warfare; some American military leaders (Nathaniel Greene, Daniel Morgan) readily understood the former, while others (George Washington) were cluelessly and stubbornly insistent on the latter. On the political side, a significant amount of attention is given to the exploitation and oppression of the Tories (Loyalists), who are also shown to have been enemy combatants (significantly figuring into late British counter-revolutionary military strategy). Rothbard also details the typically disastrous history of wartime inflation (actually hyperinflation) and price controls, and the extent to which they actually damaged the radical cause, empowering a conservative counter-revolution epitomized by Robert Morris's otherwise inexplicable rise to power. The fourth volume concludes with a discussion of the revolution's impact overseas; the American example triggered a wave of rebellions in Europe, ultimately culminating in the French Revolution.

Rothbard is delightfully frank, and always anxious to puncture the over-inflated reputations of historical figures he considers overrated. Benjamin Franklin was an opportunistic hedonist; George Washington was vain and incompetent; Robert Morris was a Mephistophelian usurper and embezzler. These are the more extreme examples; most figures come in for a more moderate revision, sometimes positive and sometimes negative. The point is that Rothbard insists on applying his own independent judgement, even when that requires him to discard the consensus of most historians.

And why shouldn't he? As Rothbard shows convincingly, the historical consensus has gotten the revolution wrong on a number of points, from the importance of guerrilla warfare (which, surprisingly, was not appreciated until about the late 1960s), to the American populace's broad support of the revolution, to the revolution's radical and internal (not just external) character. Rothbard's work has overcome my skepticism and convinced me that the American Revolution was in fact an explicitly and ideologically libertarian revolution.

---

I read the four-volume edition (hardback with red cloth binding) published by the Mises Institute, which is of outstanding physical quality and durability. (As a rule, all books published by the Mises Institute are extremely well made.) This version has now gone out-of-print, replaced by a single-volume edition. I haven't seen this edition, but I know from my experience with The Invisibles that there's no reading a 1,600 page hardcover comfortably. I also listened to much of the audiobook. Dr. Floy Lilley's efforts in narrating the 80-hour book are heroic, but unfortunately also somewhat amateurish.

[Bernard English · Rating 5 out of 5]

I confess that even as an American, I basically had no clue about early colonial history and the revolution, or civil war, as Rothbard calls it occasionally. Who knew the NY county I grew up in was a hotbed of Tory reactionaries--darn public education. There is an overwhelming amount of detail in the four volumes which, as he wrote, put the narrative back into history so that readers can judge things for themselves. Readers unfamiliar with Rothbards better known economic works will be rewarded with lots of brief observations and lessons on economics and finance. Rothbard's (aka Mr. Libertarian) anti-authority strain and democratic tendencies is epitomized by his unorthodox explanation of the Salem witch hunts. He argues that many of the accusations emanated from the elite and were actually politically motivated. It was the "revulsion of the people" and "popular petitions" that ended the witch trials.

One broad lesson he teaches is that the liberties were not to be had in America just because there was a lot of land available. It certainly helped, but there were numerous attempts to impose European style feudalism and status/caste social system throughout early American history on settlers who couldn't just pick up and go elsewhere. Another lesson is that the states had very different histories which elsewhere he has written could not really be overlooked until around 1900 when the power of the Federal government overshadowed any differences among states. In fact, he argues that the degree of resistance of oligarchies to reform was roughly proportional to the degree that a state ended up with a liberal constitution. And he makes it clear that force had to be an option, quoting a Dutch revolutionary as saying that following the American example, every man "was to be ready, 'every man with his musket.'" The principle of armed resistance on the part of ordinary colonists as opposed to relying on conventional standing armies is a major theme of the fourth volume. Perhaps he goes into too much military details for some readers, but in doing so he makes it quite clear the a people's war, or guerrilla war, was what worked and not George Washington's insistence on conventional direct confrontation with the British forces. No wonder Washington lost more battles than he won.

He approvingly quotes the historian Shy on Charles Lee, an early proponent of guerrilla warfare, though it wasn't called that at the time:"Intellectual that he was, Lee tried to see the Revolution as a consistent whole, with every aspect in rational harmony with every other. It was a fight by free men for their natural rights. Neither the fighters nor the cause were suited to the military techniques of despotism--the linear tactics, the rigid discipline, the long enlistments, the strict separation of the army from the civic life that marked Frederick's Prussia."

Another big strength of Rothbard's account is that he is not blindly devoted to any of the historical figures he covers. His command of the history and devotion to the truth allows him to chart people's adherence or divergence from the principles of liberty. And there were certainly some surprises there. "The opportunist" Benjamin Franklin was actually on the secret payroll of the Brits at one time. Even more disappointingly, Thomas Paine late in his career sold his pen to the conservative forces. Its hard to do justice to how carefully Rothbard covers all the twists and turns of individuals as they turn left and right in regards to economic and political principles. And yes, that includes George Washington.

I would say that the average reader who may not have time for all of the volumes, would perhaps enjoy volume 4 the most. All the volumes are (legally) available for free at mises.org.

[Anand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book. It took two years, and several gaps, to have completed all three volumes of Rothbard's magisterial, worthwhile, beautifully written, if incomplete, history of colonial America and the fine libertarian Revolution.

Some observations:

(1) Rothbard's fervor for the libertarian revolutionary spirit leads him to join the classical liberals of old in favoring the French Revolution, long condemned by American libertarians and conservatives as preceding the SJW hysterics and the leftist corruption of modern Western globalism. He interprets the American Revolution as radical. He sees the Enlightenment as a generally fine movement for the cause of Liberty. In this he is joined by Chesterton and Belloc, staunch Catholics who favored the French Revolution, and Robert R. Palmer, whose work strongly influenced the fourth volume of Rothbard's history.

(2) Rothbard's conflict theory, of Liberty against power, is quite convincing. I imagine how it could be applied to the times of the Renaissance, classical Athens and Rome, Great Britain

(3) Rothbard was no worshipper of democracy, yet unlike Hoppe, Rothbard saw democracy as neutral insofar as it was merely a pattern of voting. He argued against the opposition between liberty and democracy, at least in the context of the history books, and argues that, far from being mere mob rule, democracy went hand in hand with the libertarian cause of the American Revolution.

(4) It's well written, dense; sometimes I skimmed over, missing important facts, but I feel like I got the general feel and sweep of the work.

(5) Perhaps my favorite of the volumes was Volumes III and IV, perhaps because they center more and more around the American Revolution than the first two.

I also appreciated the bon mots about Charles Lee, John Milton, Roger Williams, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Locke, Voltaire, and even Rousseau.

[IMPERIVM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely detailed account of early American history and its significance to an anarcho-capitalist theorist.

[Derek Kreider · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a massive work. I’m sure there’s bias involved, but there is so much information here, it would be easy to verify. The author shows how freedom leads more to justice (or a lack of injustice, at least) and power tends towards corruption (seen in a number of figures like Thomas Paine and Roger Williams). He also highlights how figures like Washington and Franklin were avaricious self-promoters, but how they get written into history over other truly heroic and accomplished individuals.

There is so much in this work to sift through.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Likely ought to be required reading for all Tea Party patriots. A couple revelations for me - one expected the other not. As I expected Ben Franklin takes a direct hit as an early spy. What I did not expect was the strength of the case against Washington as an effective general. Rothbard makes an excellent case that the leadership at the grass roots was far more important to American victory than was Washington's leadership.

[Legacy Dad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book goes into great details surrounding the founding of the United States. There are numerous stories and pieces of history well before the revolution that most won't know about or hear in your college History classes. This book is great addition to anyone studying the history of the U.S. or for anyone who wants to understand why our form of government was so radical and new in 1776. I highly recommend this book to any patriotic Americans or those looking for details on why we formed the U.S.

[Cris Pace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting but flawed

Rothbard’s biases as an economist shade every single judgement on history, and he consistently tries to shoehorn history to justify his beliefs rather than tell an accurate view of history.

[Daniel Ogburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

History of the American Revolutionary War and the events leading up to it from a libertarian perspective in painful detail.

[Miles Foltermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall an excellent series. The first volume is quite dry, as are the earlier sections of the second volume. At that point, the story picks up pace. The third and fourth volumes are excellent.

[Renan Rocha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book so detailed about United States history.

[William Merrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most comprehensive review of US history, from discovery to post-revolution, that has ever been compiled in one set of books.

Rothbard takes the reader on a journey that is analogous to Sagan's 'Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors' - in detail more than prose, and with a unique perspective.

[Craig Bolton]

Conceived in Liberty (4 Volume Set) by Murray N. Rothbard (2000)

[Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich, detailed presentation of colonial and revolutionary American history from an Austrian economist's perspective.

[Stephen Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazingly detailed history of America from the first settlers up through the end of the revolution. Fantastic! I hope I retained 10% of it!

[Bob Ladwig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read for those who love history, particularly from an economic perspective.

[Nehemiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is marred by a hard libertarian narrative throughout but surprising because of the amount of icons and heroes of the Revolution that it overthrows and the new ones that it convincingly raises up.

[Groot · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing education. Highly recommend.