There's never been a better time to remember the revolutionary and even libertarian roots of the American founding, and there's no better guide to what this means in the narrative of the Colonial period than Murray Rothbard.
For anyone who thinks of Murray Rothbard as only an economic theorist or political thinker, this four-volume series (now available in a single ebook) is nothing short of shocking. It offers 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, Conceived in Liberty 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 protosocialist uprising, Rothbard views this period as a time of accelerating libertarian radicalism. Through this prism, Rothbard illuminates events as never before.
The original volumes were brought out in the 1970s, but their odd timing and uneven distribution prevented any kind of large audience. Initially they were beloved only by a few specialists, but thanks to their outstanding reputation they were eventually sought after by many. The Mises Institute is pleased to be the publisher of the newly available, single-volume ebook.
