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Conceived in Liberty (4 Volume Set)

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Murray Rothbard's "Conceived in Liberty" set is a brilliant history of the American experience. Rothbard chronicles the events that make up America. He starts in volume one by carefully outlining and detailing the founding of the British colonies in North America from Jamestown to the Glorious Revolution in Britian. Rothbard masterfully points out how the wide open and easy availablity of land enabled the colonists to become a new kind of man- a man of freedom and independence. The colonists did suffer under tyranny during this period, from Puritan Massachusetts with it's theocracy to the tyranny of the corporation that ran the Virginia colony, Rothbard lays out a complete history of the colonial founding.

In volume two it is shown how the "salutary neglect" of the British government allowed the colonies to develop not only independent trade, but their own self government. During this period the colonies were virtually self governing due to a combination of the wars Britian fought in Europe and the ruling British elites' contempt for the colonists. The colonists developed a sense of not only being "Englishmen", but citizens of their own colonies. Also a nascent American nationalism began to develop along with a contempt for the corruption in Britian and it's aristocracy.

Volume three is, in my humble opnion, the very best of the four volumes. It is in this volume in which Rothbard shows the radicalism as the real American Revolution began with the Stamp Act in 1764 and culminating in the Declaration of Independence. Because of this, I believe this to be the most important volume.
Rothbard begins by showing the colonial opposition to the centralizing tendancies of the British government. First, the outrage against the Stamp Act which the colonists saw as unconstitutional and passed to "enslave" them. Next, we have the Townshend duties which the colonists, led by such radical patriots like Samuel Adams, saw as unconstitutionally regulating their trade. These unconstitutional acts were "nullified" by the colonies in harsh and strong language. Colonies denounced the acts and passed resolutions declaring the acts void. The populace and governments of the colonies then refused to enforce the acts. Colonial officials were threatened, and warned not to violate the liberty of their constitutents. Eventually the colonial governments were literally overthrown and royal government ended.

During this period, Rothbard points out how the colonists drank deeply in the cup of Enlightenment philosophy. Rousseau, Voltaire, Locke, the English Levellers, Sidney and the Roman and Greek philosophers were the base of the new emerging libertarian philosophy. Rothbard, without directly stating it, totally refutes the lies of the Religious Right about the Founders being "born again" Christians, and the loony Left's assertion about a "conservative" revolution. Both views are false. Instead you see a new nation rising out of the ashes of the Old World. A new nation based upon the liberalizing effects of the Enlightenment. Freedom of speech, religion, person etc were supported and written into the new revolutionary constitutions and liberal ideals of equality under the law, and free trade were beginning to flourish.

The fourth volume is quite good. Rothbard details the military portion of the Revolution with the consequent upheaval of society in the new American States. Committees of Public Safety. Correspondence, etc became the de-facto governments after the fall of British authority. These committees were, in many cases, popularly elected and supported. The committees used coercive and aggressive methods against "Tories" by confiscating property, banishment, and sometimes outright violence; further refuting the view that it was a "conservative", and "consensus" oriented revolution.

Rothbard brings us to the end of the war and deliniates the "liberating" effects of the Revolution. The gradual elimination of slavery in many colonies, the ending of religious qualifications for public office, the equalizing of property by the natural effects of having vast open land, the purchase of Tory estates at small prices and the gradual, but eventual melting away of the class oriented society of Britian.

These volumes are a treasure, and should be read and re-read. Rothbard will scare both right and left by this history. He thoroughly destroys the "conservative" and "consensus" historical view, and leaves the leftist interpretation to rot in it's own rhetoric. He also refutes the view of the modern court historians by showing the colonies to be independent entities, with their own self governing societies. He correctly shows how the American Revolution was a massive social, political and philosophical revolution. He will scare the daylights out of modern Federalists by showing how colonial legislatures opposed, refuted and literally nullified British authority in America. They passed resolutions directly opposing the authority of the central government. He proves that the opposition to strong central government started not in the Civil War, or in Jefferson's masterful Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, but during the American Revolution. He proves that opposition to centralized government is as American as hot dogs and apple pie.

If you love history,liberty, and freedom, buy this set! You won't be sorry!

It's a lot to read, but well worth the time. Any serious student of America history should own these volumes. Rothbard explodes many of the contemporary myths espoused today by would be historians. For example he proves by historical documentation, that the accepted myth that only 1/3 of the colonial population were in favor of the revolution, 1/3 neutral & 1/3 loyal to England, is WRONG! The letter from which this supposed fact was taken, by John Adams, is clearly referring to America attitudes toward the French revolution, not the American. In another letter, Adams estimated that the American Revolution was indeed supported by over two-thirds of the colonial population. A striking contrast to popular belief. He supported these findings by quoting from a book by John R Alden, 1954, "The American Revolution." This is an example of what you find in Professor Rothbard's books. He gives an extensive study of the religious and political issues of the time and spells out the prejudices of slavery and the evils of tyranny. Conceived in liberty will surly open your eyes to early American history in our day of revisionism and double-speak. These volumes should be the historical textbooks in our schools and colleges. I recommend adding them to your library and using them as a valuable source of truthful information.

Although, I am not finished reading this pleasingly large four volume book of American history, I can say unequivically that there is more historical value in this book than in all of my elementary (1-12) years of education. Presented in understandable language and in sufficent detail as to lend an entirely new perspective to "the discovery of America" and the subsequent conquering of her native peoples in the name of the monarchey. Will open the eyes of any patriot.

Murray Rothbard's early American history in four volumes, "Conceived in Liberty". It's chock full of fascinating details about the character and motivations of the people who came here to form the colonies. I liked the fact that Rothbard begins with an overview of trade history in the pre-colonial era and shows how trade helped motivate the migration to North America and how it affected everything that happened thereafter.

I found these books especially good at illustrating the struggle between the oligarchical faction, composed of "friends of the Crown" with their unearned grants of huge tracts of land and laws favorable to their exploitation of that land and the people who actually did the work and built the society. The battle between oligarchy and liberty manifested itself from the first days of the colonies and there were some shining moments for liberty, particularly when the power of the state was too weak or absent and self-government flourished.

Much of the time however oppression was the mode by which the colonial governments operated and indeed the majority of the colonists suffered under it for 200 years, whether under the Puritans in Massachusetts, the aristocratic land barrons of New York, or the Planter Elite of the tobacco colonies, before they were moved to revolution.

Rothbard chronicles how the revolution grew to enjoy the support of merchants, craftsmen and farmers, through an informal network with leaders who were not imposed on the movement, but leading because of the merit they showed by working hard and at great risk, and the willingness of the masses to follow by choice. The shadow government they created, across thirteen colonies, to supplant the official colonial government, was robust and a model of spontaneous order without coercion.

Next time someone asks me where libertarianism has ever worked in the world before I'll be better able to respond that it has worked right here in America!

Unfortunately, as Rothbard observes we may have thrown off the British, but, the Oligarchs remained, changing only their nationality and wielding enough influence over the framing of the new constitution to insure that, like all of the other parasitic flora and fauna of nature, they would be ever present to plague us.

The ePub of volume one is available at Mises.org. The other volumes are only available in PDF. That explains why this Kindle version of Conceived in Liberty includes just the first volume. (I purchased this hoping to get the entire set. Oh well!)

I originally gave these volumes a 3 star rating, but I read them again and really got to the heart of Rothbard's analysis. Rothbard gets to the center of American history--trade, land-cultivation, and governmental meddling--like few others.

Anything by the late Murray Rothbard is worth reading. He is a brilliant economist and he proves to be a great historian as well with this groundbreaking book set. Enough said.