Mass Market Paperback
from $47.00

Buy used:

$49.99

FREE delivery Saturday, May 18. Order within 21 hrs 39 mins

Select delivery location

Used: Acceptable | Details

Sold by -OnTimeBooks-

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (6) from $9.98 & FREE Shipping

Follow the author

Murray N. Rothbard

+ Follow

More books from this author

Power and Market: Government and the Economy Paperback – January 1, 1977

by Murray N. Rothbard (Author), Murray Rothbard (Author)

4.8 9 ratings

See all formats and editions

Book by Murray N. Rothbard, Murray Rothbard

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sheed Andrews and McMeel; 2nd edition (January 1, 1977)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0836207513
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0836207514
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces

Best Sellers Rank: #3,671,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,793 in Development & Growth Economics (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.8 9 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Murray N. Rothbard

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Murray Newton Rothbard (/ˈmʌri ˈrɑːθbɑːrd/; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American heterodox economist of the Austrian School, a revisionist historian, and a political theorist(pp11, 286, 380) whose writings and personal influence played a seminal role in the development of modern libertarianism. Rothbard was the founder and leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism, a staunch advocate of historical revisionism, and a central figure in the twentieth-century American libertarian movement. He wrote over twenty books on political theory, revisionist history, economics, and other subjects. Rothbard asserted that all services provided by the "monopoly system of the corporate state" could be provided more efficiently by the private sector and wrote that the state is "the organization of robbery systematized and writ large." He called fractional reserve banking a form of fraud and opposed central banking. He categorically opposed all military, political, and economic interventionism in the affairs of other nations.(pp4–5, 129) According to his protégé Hans-Hermann Hoppe, "There would be no anarcho-capitalist movement to speak of without Rothbard."

Rothbard was a heterodox economist. Economist Jeff Herbener, who calls Rothbard his friend and "intellectual mentor", wrote that Rothbard received "only ostracism" from mainstream academia. Rothbard rejected mainstream economic methodologies and instead embraced the praxeology of his most important intellectual precursor, Ludwig von Mises. To promote his economic and political ideas, Rothbard joined Llewellyn H. "Lew" Rockwell, Jr. and Burton Blumert in 1982 to establish the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Alabama.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Ludwig von Mises Institute [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5

9 global ratings

3 star

0%

2 star

0%

1 star

0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Thomas M. Mcgovern

The best explanation of the free market vs. the federal government

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2011

Verified Purchase

This book is an important addendum to Man, Economy, and State. It explains the incompatibility of the free market and a statist government; they cannot exist together. You can have a free market and a government dedicated to protecting property rights or you can have a statist government that controls the economy to a greater or lesser degree.

Many people say the US has a free-market economy; anyone who says so is either a fool or a knave. If you don't already fully understand what I'm telling you, read this book.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

James F. Mueller

Rothbard's greatest work

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2007

Verified Purchase

Among all of Rothbard's works, Power and Market is my personal favorite. I first read it several years ago and have found myself going back to it ever since. The most important section of the book is his analysis of taxation, about 100 pages long. Every form of taxation is discussed and thoroughly refuted on both practical and moral grounds. Highly recommended!

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Steve Jackson

Almost 5 Stars

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2002

Power and Market is Murray Rothbard's seminal critique of government intervention in the economy. Originally meant to be part of his magisterial Man, Economy, and State, it was published separately some years later. (For a discussion of this, see Justin Raimondo's An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard at 189-194.)
Unlike most Austrian school economists, Rothbard was an anarchist. In fact, he was the twentieth century's seminal figure in anarcho-capitalist thought. This means that Rothbard thought that not only roads and the like, but also national defense and courts could be provided without a state. (See his Society Without a State in the Libertarian Reader, ed. Machan, for a succinct presentation of his views.)
Rothbard starts out this work with a discussion of various types of government intervention in the economy. He divides them into three types: autistic (violent crime), triangular (tariffs, wage and price controls, licensing, etc.)and binary intervention (taxation and government spending). Following this is a discussion of antimarket ethics. There isn't an aspect of government intervention in the economy that escapes Rothbard's scalpel. As a whole, this is certainly an outstanding book. Take Rothbard's discussion of taxation. Many "right wing" economists support the sales tax on the ground that it doesn't discourage savings and investment. But it reduces people's income and thereby reduces savings and investment. It is a tax on income. [pp. 92-93.]
My main problem with this work is the sometimes simplistic discussion of complex problems and the leaps in logic. (I've discussed this is my review of The Ethics of Liberty.) Take for example the issue of immigration laws. "The advocate of immigration laws . . . really fears, therefore, is not so much immigration as any population growth. To be consistent, therefore, he would have to advocate compulsory birth control, to slow down the rate of population growth desired by individual parents." [p. 55.] Even in light of the entire 2 page discussion of immigration laws, I don't see how this follows. In this (and some other areas) the discussion is narrowly economic. Aren't there good reasons to restrict the type of immigrants? For example, if you have a society that is devoted to individual freedom and responsibility, isn't it wise to prevent immigration from those countries that don't support freedom?
If you want to know the essence of Rothbard, purchase this work; Man, Economy, and State; The Ethics of Liberty; and the Logic of Action.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jane Q. Citizen

It's okay.

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2015

It's okay.

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2000

This volume is one of the most important economic works of the 20th century. For the most part, the bulk of this work is really nothing more than an extension of the chapter on "violent intervention" in "Man, Economy, and State." Unfortunately the initial publishers of that work balked at the radical views set forth, and therefore forced Rothbard to truncate his analysis. Nevertheless, we are fortunate enough to have this work, in he elaborates on his work in order to offer a complete praxeological critique of *all* governmental action. He classifies government intervention into 3 basic categories; autistic, binary, and triangular, and proceeds to refute arguments for all of them. Dealt with are the more commonplace statist policies such as licensing, antitrust, etc., as well as many generally off-limit areas. Indeed, probably the most startling and important aspect of this work is the lengthy refutation of virtually every significant justification of taxation, from the income tax to the Georgist single tax. Even common "conservative" myths are given no standing, as Rothbard demonstrates that there is really no such thing as a "neutral tax," and that all taxation, however applied, has sharply negative effects on the market economy. In addition to this, Rothbard develops a very stimulating refutation of common ethical arguments against capitalism, showing them to be incompatible with reality and economics. Although by and large the work is solid, I must say that I still disagree on several points with Rothbard's particular vision for a totally free, voluntary society. Nonetheless, we are not very far apart. Altogether, I have to say that this work is a landmark in economic theory, and should be on the bookshelf of every serious radical libertarian.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful