Betrayal of the American Right, by Murray Rothbard: My Book Summary & Review

This memoir of Rothbard's political life in the 1950’s and 1960’s explains the changes of the political spectrum on the right and left during this time. As an isolationist anarcho-capitalist with no political home left in America, Rothbard had to create his own movement and piece together anyone like-minded into their own libertarian movement. 

Betrayal of the American Right reads like a walk through libertarianism’s history, and how it shaped Rothbard’s thoughts along the way. He talks about the early thought leaders of the movement and the struggles they faced in a post-war New Deal era of interventionism and collectivism. 

“For years, conservatives and libertarians had argued about the "external" (Russian) and the "internal" (Washington) threats to individual liberty, with libertarians and isolationists focusing on the latter and conservatives on the former. But now we were truly liberated; the scales had fallen from our eyes; and we saw that the "external threat," too, emanated from Washington, D.C.”~ Murray Rothbard, Betrayal of the American Right

The “Old” Right & Opposition to the New Deal

Rothbard explains where the Old right came from and what they stood for. He then explains how the transition came about between the “Old” and the “New” right wings of America. 

“The Old Right arose during the 1930s as a reaction against the Great Leap Forward (or Backward) into collectivism that characterized the New Deal. That Old Right continued and flourished through the 1940s and down to about the mid-1950s. The Old Right was staunchly opposed to Big Government and the New Deal at home and abroad: that is, to both facets of the welfare-war-fare state. It combated U.S. intervention in foreign affairs and foreign wars as fervently as it opposed intervention at home.”~ Murray Rothbard, Betrayal of the American Right

The Rise of the "New Right" and the Cold War

Rothbard then identifies the people he believes ruined this "Old Right" tradition. He points a finger at William F. Buckley Jr. and the National Review crowd. He argues that these new conservatives changed the movement from one that was suspicious of the government to one that embraced a strong "Warfare State" to fight the Cold War. To Rothbard, this was the real betrayal. He felt that by supporting a massive military to fight the Soviets, the Right was actually supporting the very big government they claimed to hate.

Finding Allies on the Left

Since the Right had become so pro-war, Rothbard explains how he started looking for allies in unexpected places. He writes about his time working with the "New Left" during the 1960s. It might seem strange for a free-market capitalist to talk to socialists, but they found common ground on issues like ending the Vietnam War and stopping the military draft. This part of the book really shows that Rothbard was willing to work with anyone, regardless of their label, as long as they were against government control and foreign intervention.

My Thoughts on The Betrayal of the American Right

This book is probably the best view of the history of the libertarian movement in the American 20th century. Overall, The Betrayal of the American Right is important because it shows that libertarians and conservatives haven't always been on the same side. It explains the history of why Rothbard felt the need to break away and start something new. For anyone trying to understand why modern libertarians often disagree with mainstream Republicans, especially on foreign policy, this memoir connects all the dots and shows where those differences started.

If you made it this far, I highly recommend checking out Murray Rothbard's What Has Government Done To Our Money. This is one of my all time favorite books on economics, and is my favorite Rothbard book as well. It explains what the government does with the dollar at the tax-payers expense.