What is the main message of For a New Liberty?

The main message of For a New Liberty is advocating for individual liberty and non-aggression in a stateless society.

How long does it take to read For a New Liberty?

Reading For a New Liberty takes a few hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.

Who is the author of For a New Liberty?

Murray N. Rothbard is the author of For a New Liberty.

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For a New Liberty Book Summary - For a New Liberty Book explained in key points

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Name: For a New Liberty
Rating: 4.2 (134 reviews)
Author: Murray N. Rothbard

Murray N. Rothbard

The Libertarian Manifesto

4.2 (134 ratings)

27 mins

Brief summary

'For a New Liberty' by Murray N. Rothbard argues for a stateless society, where all services are provided by the free market and individual liberties are protected. It criticizes government intervention in the economy and advocates for individualism in thought and action.

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Western Philosophy

Table of Contents

For a New Liberty
Summary of 9 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 9

What’s in it for me? An argument for a stateless society.

What would life look like without a central government? Many assume that it would result in chaos – a lawless country full of crime and cruelty.

But this terrifying vision isn’t at all accurate. In many societies of the past, like ancient Ireland, people lived in relative peace for many years without a central State ruling over them. In the modern world, though, a truly stateless society has never existed – so, understandably, it can be hard to imagine.

However, things are slowly changing. Many people are beginning to turn to libertarianism, an ideology that strongly favors individual rights and advocates for abolishing much of the central government.

These blinks will give you a broad introduction to libertarian thought. You’ll find out why libertarians are so opposed to central government, and you’ll discover how a libertarian society might function. By the end, you might just find yourself looking at the State with a more critical eye.

Along the way, you’ll learn

how all rights can be interpreted as property rights;
why libertarians think inciting a riot isn’t a crime; and
how free markets could reverse pollution.

Libertarianism evolved over the course of American history.

Today, libertarianism lies somewhere on the fringes of contemporary politics. But there was a time when libertarianism was mainstream. In fact, the United States was founded on it.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, governments generally consisted of an all-powerful State headed by a king. The political order was one of absolute control, high taxes, and monopolies. Classical liberals – the people who eventually became known as libertarians – aimed to disrupt this order.

Classical liberals wanted to free the markets and eliminate central control to improve the lives of the masses. They wanted an end to constant war and political oppression. And they wanted to stop kings from using religion to justify tyranny.

These principles were deeply important in America’s founding years – but they didn’t necessarily remain so.

The key message here is: Libertarianism evolved over the course of American history.

English philosopher John Locke was a classical liberal who laid the foundations for modern libertarianism in his treatises defining natural rights. One of his arguments was that if a government became tyrannical, citizens had a right to revolt. In the early 1720s, writers John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon took Locke’s ideas a step further. In their publication Cato’s Letters, Trenchard and Gordon argued that the State is always an agent of tyranny and coercion.

Avid readers of Locke’s treatises and Cato’s Letters, the American revolutionaries were inspired to embed the libertarian principles of limited government into America’s founding documents. But as time passed, these libertarian values began to erode, and the central government’s power expanded.

In the early eighteenth century, the Democratic Party was created specifically to recapture the spirit of liberty. But in the 1840s, the issue of slavery began tearing the party apart. Meanwhile, the abolitionist – yet overtly statist – Republican Party rose to power. Despite ending slavery, the Republican Party also granted subsidies to big businesses, established federal control of the banks, and instituted other big-government policies during and after the Civil War.

At the same time, other ideologies started co-opting libertarian terminology. The biggest offender was socialism. Prior to socialism’s rise in the nineteenth century, libertarians were considered the radical, progressive party on the “extreme Left.” But before long, socialists had designated themselves the new progressives, pushing libertarianism to the fringes.

Despite these roadblocks, the Libertarian Party has now become the third-largest political party in the United States.

The nonaggression axiom underpins the libertarian belief system.

Libertarianism is often considered an anti-State philosophy. Really, though, all libertarian beliefs stem from one overarching principle: the nonaggression axiom.

The nonaggression axiom is simple: no person or group of people should initiate or threaten violence against anyone else.

The State regularly compels forced labor.

It goes without saying that libertarians are vehemently opposed to slavery. There’s hardly a greater violation of the nonaggression axiom. But since slavery is now illegal everywhere in the world, is it still worthwhile to debate the issue?

A libertarian would answer yes. And that’s because libertarians believe that slavery is still alive and well in the modern world, albeit in hidden forms.

The State should not legislate a particular moral code.

From the libertarian perspective, commonly accepted rights like freedom of speech and freedom of the press fall under the blanket of property rights. Importantly, though, libertarians also believe in freedom of the will.

To illustrate freedom of the will, take this example. Say Citizen A wants to start a riot. She goes out into the town square, shouting and whipping people into a frenzy. If Citizens B and C hear Citizen A’s speech and then decide to riot, who’s at fault – Citizen A, or Citizens B and C? Libertarians believe that only Citizens B and C are at fault, since they’ve acted of their own free will in choosing to commit a crime.

State-run services like education and welfare harm the people they’re supposed to help.

Nowadays, we consider education an integral part of a child’s life. But public education, specifically, is a relatively new phenomenon.

In the 1920s, the state of Oregon passed a law banning private schools. Children were to be forced into public schools and taught the state-approved curriculum. And who was the group so ardently pushing for this new law? Not liberals or progressives, but the Ku Klux Klan, who wanted to force immigrants and Catholics into a homogenous “Americanized” school system.

The Federal Reserve causes inflation and economic recession.

One day, a government official visits the Jones family and hands them a money printer. The official tells the Joneses that they’re now in charge of printing the entire nation’s money supply. The family is elated, and they start using the printer to slowly pay off their debts and loans. But soon, that isn’t enough, so they begin printing money for luxury goods.

Over time, the country’s total money supply goes up substantially. This creates the illusion that citizens in general have gotten richer, which causes the price of consumer goods to go up.

Public sector services like streets, police, and courts should be privatized.

Imagine living in a society in which, for as long as you can remember, the government has provided shoes to everyone in the population in exchange for a percentage of their taxes. One day, a libertarian comes along and says that the government should stop providing shoes and that the whole shoemaking business should be privatized.

Undoubtedly, many people would object. Who would possibly supply shoes without the government? How would we afford them?

A fully free market could correct the environmental ills the government has created.

Environmental conservation has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. Are capitalism and excessive industrialization to blame, as some believe?

Let’s look at the big picture. Thanks to capitalism and the technological innovations it’s brought with it, the continent of North America now supports several hundred million people at a very high standard of living. Prior to capitalism, however, the continent only supported about a million Native Americans living at the subsistence level.

States should interfere as little as possible in other States’ affairs.

Due to their anti-war stance, libertarians are often smeared as isolationists or peace-loving hippies. But like all other libertarian beliefs, opposition to war comes down to the fact that it’s a gross violation of the nonaggression axiom.

In an ideal world, every country would follow libertarian principles, so war would rarely – if ever – break out. On top of that, there’d also be no foreign policy, since no nations or governments would exist. But, of course, this isn’t the world we live in – nor is it likely to be.

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What is For a New Liberty about?

For a New Liberty (1973) is a classic work that lays out the foundational principles of libertarianism. It refutes the necessity of a central State and argues against government involvement in all areas of life, from education to the police. The result is a scathing critique of the inefficiency, overreach, and moral crimes of the State.

For a New Liberty Review

For a New Liberty (1973) by Murray N. Rothbard serves as an enlightening exploration of anarchism and its potential to shape a more just society. Here's why this book is worth reading:

It presents a compelling argument for the idea that a stateless society can provide better solutions for societal problems than a government-controlled one.
Rothbard employs a logical and persuasive approach, backed by historical examples and economic analysis, to support his anarchistic views.
This thought-provoking book challenges conventional notions of political authority, making it a stimulating and eye-opening read for anyone interested in political philosophy.

Best quote from For a New Liberty

Anyone who truly believes in the voluntary nature of taxation is invited to refuse to pay taxes and to see what then happens to him.

—Murray N. Rothbard

Who should read For a New Liberty?

Fans of political philosophy and theory
Disaffected conservatives and liberals
Libertarians or those with libertarian leanings

About the Author

Murray Rothbard was a political theorist, professor, economist of the Austrian school, and one of the founding fathers of modern anarcho-capitalism – a synthesis of classical liberalism and individualist anarchism. He was active in the Libertarian Party in the 1970s and ’80s and cofounded the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. His other major works include America’s Great Depression, The Ethics of Liberty, and Man, Economy, and State.

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