Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Murray Rothbard Slowly Going Down the Memory Hole at Laissez Faire Books?

I buy my books mostly from Amazon,  so I don't generally shop at Lassiez Faire Books, but I did wander over there today and was pretty shocked.

This is the list of what LFB calls its top authors:


Top Authors

  1. Ludwig von Mises
  2. Mark Skousen
  3. Friedrich A. Hayek
  4. Hans-Hermann Hoppe
  5. Ron Paul
  6. Bill Bonner
  7. Robert Higgs
  8. Addison Wiggin
  9. Jeffrey A. Tucker
  10. Ayn Rand

LFB also has categories, which include:

Economics

Philosophy

53 comments:

  1. You're watching too much Alex Jones Robert. I logged on and have different authors than what you listed. I have Doug French listed as a top author. I don't think they are intentionally slighting Rothbard. I don't have Ayn Rand or Hazlitt and they have sold more books than Rothbard.

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  2. I think they only sell four or five Rothbard titles. Of course, they're all free to download over at Mises.

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  3. Not only is Rothbard missing from the top authors list . . . I couldn't find him in the list of all authors under "Shop for books by author" Is it possible that LFB doesn't carry any books by him, or am I just blind?

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  4. All the Rothbard books are free or available cheaper at mises.org. The top authors books are probably best sellers from the site.

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    1. The argument doesn't hold, Ludwig Mises books are free at Mises but are featured at LFB.

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    2. Has it ever occurred to you that this list might be automatically generated based on sales? And that Mises books might sell more sometimes? And that if Tucker was doing something to downplay Rothbard, Hoppe the Rothbardian would not be in the list either?

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  5. I'm not sure why they only have four of his books and don't promote them more prominently, but they have a ton of articles praising him. I searched Rothbard and you can find multiple pages of articles giving him gushing praise. I am curious why they don't sell more Rothbard, but I don't think it is for nefarious reasons. Worth asking the question, though.

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  6. I think the top authors is based on sales. Perhaps people tend to buy Rothbard from mises.org?

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    1. The argument doesn't hold, Ludwig Mises books are free at Mises but are featured at LFB.

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  7. Why would I buy any Rothbard books (epubs) here when I could get them for free at Mises.org and load them on my eReader (iPad, Surfaces, iPhone, etc)?

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    1. The argument doesn't hold, Ludwig Mises books are free at Mises but are featured at LFB.

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  8. Will you Libertarians stop fighting amongst yourselves.

    Wenzel, give Rand Paul a break. He is in the swamp trying to change, something, anything. You don't change anything, although I read your blog. But nobody else does.

    And lfb.org, another of my sites. Plus mises.org. So, lfb does not feature Rothbard, I do that on Mises.

    Truly that Alex Jones RANT on Piers Morgan set us all back. He was embarassing. AJ looked like an idiot. And he is not. But that is how he came across.

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    1. Do you even realize how hypocritical your comment is?

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    2. And yet here you are, fighting against libertarians for having different views than you.

      Yeah, Rand is trying to change things, by voting for sanctions against Iran. That worked out great for 500.000 kids in Iraq, didn't it?

      Why don't you apologists for compromises with evil get lost already. You are the ones setting the liberty movement back.
      Neolibertarians who think statists like Rand Paul are the answer are just diluting the core of the libertarian message.

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  9. Plus, apparently you screen your comments; what are you, the New York Times?

    Maybe I won't visit this site, anymore.

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  10. All in print is news that fits.

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    1. Sounds like your first time here. It takes comments a while to post sometimes. Lots of people post twice for that reason. Before you go, I would like to know, do you have any response to Tony's comments above?

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  11. I'm sure Tucker has rationalization for this. I don't see why anyone with half a brain would purchase a Rothbard work as they are available at Mises for free. The only print editions I have purchased have been when I sought to reference.

    Eventually I will purchase the Mises full Rothbard author collection, which is even SEPARATELY, cheaper than Amazon. You can't compete with Mises with what they offer whether for free or payment, better business to focus elsewhere.

    I can't see Jeff Tucker going CATO on Rothbard.

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    1. The argument doesn't hold, Ludwig Mises books are free at Mises but are featured at LFB.

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    2. Hey, I've bought multiple copies of almost all his works. I'm pretty sure I have more than half a brain. I just give away all my hard copies any chance I get. I've bought and given away at least 10 copies of For A New Liberty.

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    3. I dig hardbacks and stuff to sit on shelves and hold in hand and give to others. Not so much a fan of reading books electronically.

      I must be an idiot as well. Or maybe just set in my ways...

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  12. Does anyone know why Tucker left the Mises Institute? I'm a little curious. I assume he simply wanted a change in his life, was offered a new opportunity, and perhaps a new location.

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    1. That's precisely it. He is essentially practicing what he preaches. He left a non-profit organization to test his hand in private business, one that is very much in line with his qualifications.

      As for the Rothbard thing, I don't know that the list that Wenzel is talking about isn't related to top-sellers (we can only speculate as the meaning behind the list). However, in terms of the books by Rothbard that they do offer, they do have all of his biggest, most notable works. And no matter how anti-IP either LvMI or LFB is, there still is the problem of licensing in the publishing business.

      With that said, it is my opinion that LFB is more forward-looking in terms of sustaining a profitable business. Yes, they do offer many of the classics, but I think that their business model is more geared toward new books (new product), the next Rothbard, so to speak. While LvMI offers many new books, it is clear that they are geared more toward the maintaining of an archive, a legacy. I think that LFB's model seeks to publish more new material, and this probably also helps to in part explain Tucker's departure.

      For a guy that has been friends with Lew Rockwell for 25 years, and was also a good friend of Murray Rothbard, I think that it is ridiculous to think that Tucker (or LFB) is somehow shunning Rothbard. Rothbard just isn't producing new material, and most of it is already available for free or very cheaply.

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    2. He was also offered a big paycheck.

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  13. This was three days ago: http://lfb.org/today/the-man-the-keynesians-fear/

    And he wrote this last month: "My list of people who changed me fundamentally would include H.L. Mencken, Murray Rothbard, Ayn Rand, Noam Chomsky, and Arthur Schopenhauer." http://lfb.org/today/casey-the-cleanup-crew/

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    1. You are joking, right? Tucker isn't promoting Rothbard, so you put up a link to his promotion of Murphy as a defense?

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  14. For god's sakes.
    Mises is on there, and so is Hoppe.

    I understand appreciation, but why must everyone outright WORSHIP Rothbard?
    Whether or not it could be a good thing to own a hardcopy of Rothbard's books is immaterial - I'm talking to you, THE CLEANER -, because what matters is whether customers feel like buying something that is for free at Mises. Some might, but it is certainly a possibility that less do that would buy other writers' books because Rothbard is free at Mises. If they weren't for free at Mises, maybe Rothbard would be top of the list.

    Either way, who cares? There is no proof that LFB is pushing Rothbard down the memory hole. Maybe the sales are actually, you know, NOT THAT GREAT at this particular moment.

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    1. I completely agree. The Rothbard worship gets annoying. Even Mises.org should be renamed to Rothbard.org. For everyone course they have on Mises in the Academy, they have ten on Rothbard. And they push Rothbard's books more than Mises himself.

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    2. Maybe because Rothbard is everything Mises was and more?

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    3. Rothbard is more accessible. What liberty requires right now is someone who is accessible. We've schooled the brains right out of people.

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  15. "For god's sakes.
    Mises is on there, and so is Hoppe."

    Which kind of proves the point, why isn't Rothbard on any of the front pages?

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    1. It's not worshiping a cheese pizza to go into a pizza joint and expect to see a cheese pizza next to the pepperoni. It would be weird for the joint not to have cheese pizza, though. It's weird for a libertarian bookstore not to feature even one Rothbard book.

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    2. Nice of you to miss my point entirely.

      Mises and Hoppe on there PROVES that LFB does not have a problem with Austrian economics nor anarcho-capitalism.

      What problem thus could they possibly have with Rothbard. It's just nonsense to see some kind of animosity at play there.
      I explained a possible reason he is not on the front page.
      While his books may sell, they may not sell as much as they otherwise would BECAUSE people can get them for free at Mises. Your mentioning of Mises as some kind of proof is meaningless, unless you want to say that it is "unfair" that Mises sells better than Rothbard.

      Until you prove that this theory is impossible and you have no proof of animosity of some sort being at play, it is quite frankly idiotic to assume animosity is behind this.

      Quite frankly i think it is kind of pathetic to scour websites just for seeing whether they properly lick Rothbard's heels every day of the year.

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    3. @ Anonymous

      Are you in the habit of browsing pizza joints just to see if they have cheese pizza?
      And would you think they are sending cheese pizza's "down the memory hole" if they don't have them? Or would you expect it to be the result of supply and demand?
      Do you actually think supporters of anarchocapitalism and of the Austrian school, who are in the business of making money, would for some reason boycot Murray Rothbard?

      Expecting a certain kind of continual deference to someone from other people, and expecting a conspiracy if there isn't, is looking like worship to me.

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    4. Tony,

      You are obtuse. My point isn't about Mises or Hoppe, it is, like it is for RW, anout Rothbard. Can you explain why Rothbard isn't on any front pages in any category?

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    5. You are obtuse. My point isn't about Mises or Hoppe, it is, like it is for RW, anout Rothbard. Can you explain why Rothbard isn't on any front pages in any category?

      I'm not Tony, but I'll venture a guess that it's because Rothbard's books don't sell as well at LFB for some reason or another.

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  16. I smell an episode of "The Robert Wenzel" show! I'm standing by for Robert Wenzel and Jeffery Tucker. I have met Tucker on several occasions and I know he's a massive Rothbard fan...one of the biggest Rothbard fans in the world. Bob - just give Tucker a shout and ask the question directly.

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    1. "Massive Rothbard" fans don't neglect to put Rothbard on any front page, when they run a bookstore,

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  17. What stood out on this list is not the deletion of Rothbard, but the
    presence of Mark Skousen, he's a OPPORTUNIST RAT'!

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  18. "Deletion of Rothbard"? What nonsense.

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  19. Who is worshiping Rothbard? Another silly comment I'm tried of seeing. Time for another Chris Rossini post on that point... ;-)

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  20. Well, I don't think Laissez Faire books controls what people choose to buy. Maybe most of its customers are already stocked up on Rothbard, eh...?

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  21. LFB is a clever PR facelift for Agora Inc., which is quite cozy with intelligence....behind the libertarian rhetoric.

    Money talks...

    "Libertarian" in those parts seems to include Rothschild court- historian Niall Ferguson, a deep lover of empire.

    No doubt the Rothschild-connected corporations will profit from this LFB-fronted attack on IP. That's Tucker's job description, I daresay.

    How much more obvious can it get before you kiddies wake up and figure out that American libertarians have been snookered...

    Or do you still believe in Santa Paul and his golden reindeer?

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  22. This doesn't make any sense. Last I heard, Jeffery Tucker was "a Rothbard" man, more than anything else. I actually heard him say that once at a Libertarian convention.

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  23. The "Top Authors" section is based on what's actually selling on the site, not who Jeff has decided is a top author.

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  24. Way to drive page views, by creating a controversy...

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  25. This is exactly why I stopped reading your site regularly. It's a shame, you've got interesting posts about economics when you can be bothered to make one. Instead it's ridiculous trash like this most of the time. Accusing Jeff Tucker of all people of blacking out Rothbard is the height of stupidity.

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  26. I actually heard him say that once at a Libertarian convention.. I'm tried of seeing. Time for another Chris Rossini post on that point.
    https://www.baneh.com
    thanks alot

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