Never a Dull Moment: A Libertarian Look at the Sixties

by Murray N. Rothbard, Justin Raimondo (Editor)

For Murray Rothbard, libertarianism wasn’t an intellectual parlor game, nor was it a personal affectation: for him, it was a banner that was meant to be carried into battle. Ever the happy warrior, he sought to bring the radical libertarian perspective to bear on the events of the day, and it was a task he delighted in. From 1967 thru 1968, Rothbard churned out 58 columns for the Freedom Newspapers, addressing the campus revolt; the massive antiwar demonstrations; the Six-Day War between Israel and the Arab powers; the Newark riots; the Vietnam war; the persecution of H. Rap Brown, the assassination of Martin Luther King, the abdication of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the rise of Richard Nixon — in those two crucial years there was, as they say, never a dull moment.

Genres: History, Politics, Economics

168 pages, Paperback

Published July 20, 2016

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

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never a Dull Moment features dozens of articles written by "Mr. Libertarian" - the irrepressible Murray Rothbard. I enjoyed his takes on the issues of the decade, including the Vietnam War, black liberation, and the rise of Buckley conservatism.

There are many lessons to be learned here - the most important of which is how to find common ground with your ideological opposites (as Murray did with the left in protesting the Vietnam War and the draft).

This is a must-read for those interested in Murray's ideas and his vision of libertarianism. PDF is free at mises.org.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a series of about 60 columns on Rothbards thoughts on various current events during the 1960s. There are a lot of columns or chapters and each one all of us would probably rate differently but the highlights of this book for me would just be to listen to Rothbard and his views why he felt he identified more with the 'left' during the 60s than the right, and other columns that give more detail to this transition for him. His thoughts on presidents, conflicts of the day, rioting and the use of force, and many other topics that were 'hot' during that time. I think its worth a read but only if you already like Rothbard.

[Andrew Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good-for-nothing America-hating hippie and commie sympathizer

[Earlean Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agreed, For the most part

As usual, and correctly so, libertarians rarely agree with each other, and rightly so. If they followed in lock step, as do others, they would not be libertarians.