# *For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto* (1973) Back to [[Murray Rothbard]] · [[Bibliography]] · Philosophical sequel: [[The Ethics of Liberty (1982)]] · Cited in [[Post Analysis - Handre on Rothbard (2026-10-21)]] **What it is:** Rothbard's book-length popular case for anarcho-capitalism, written for a general audience. Gordon calls it "a comprehensive popular account of libertarianism." First published by Macmillan (Collier Books) in **1973**; revised in 1978; Mises Institute edition 2006 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_a_New_Liberty); [Gordon](https://mises.org/profile/murray-n-rothbard)). @Handre's date of 1973 is correct. ## Core principles stated in the book - **The nonaggression axiom:** "The libertarian creed rests upon one central axiom: that no man or group of men may aggress against the person or property of anyone else. This may be called the 'nonaggression axiom.'" (ch. 2) - **Self-ownership:** the natural-rights case begins "with the basic axiom of the 'right to self-ownership.'" (ch. 2) - **The state as aggressor:** the libertarian holds the state to the same morals as anyone else: "War is Mass Murder, Conscription is Slavery, and Taxation is Robbery." Taxes are taken "by the direct threat of confiscation or imprisonment if payment is not forthcoming." (ch. 2–3) ## Outline 1. **The Libertarian Heritage: The American Revolution and Classical Liberalism.** The radical roots of American liberty; how classical liberalism declined into conservatism and the modern left. **Part I: The Libertarian Creed** 2. **Property and Exchange.** The nonaggression axiom; self-ownership; homesteading (mixing labour with unowned resources); free exchange and contract. 3. **The State.** The state as the organisation of the political means: taxation as robbery, "court intellectuals" who legitimise it, and the state's monopoly on force. **Part II: Libertarian Applications to Current Problems** 4. **The Problems.** Government failure is concentrated where the state operates: streets, schools, police, money. 5. **Involuntary Servitude.** Conscription, compulsory jury service, forced labour in other forms. 6. **Personal Liberty.** Freedom of speech, press and association; victimless crimes; drugs and pornography. 7. **Education.** Against compulsory public schooling. 8. **Welfare and the Welfare State.** Critique of welfare, with private charity and mutual aid as the alternative. 9. **Inflation and the Business Cycle: The Collapse of the Keynesian Paradigm.** The Austrian cycle theory and gold money (summary of [[America's Great Depression (1963)]] and [[What Has Government Done to Our Money (1963)]]). 10. **The Public Sector, I: Government in Business.** Calculation and incentive failures of state enterprise. 11. **The Public Sector, II: Streets and Roads.** Privatised roads. 12. **The Public Sector, III: Police, Law, and the Courts.** Competing protection agencies and private arbitration; customary libertarian law code. Credits **Gustave de Molinari** as "the first person in history to contemplate and advocate a free market for police protection" (p. 271). 13. **Conservation, Ecology, and Growth.** Pollution as trespass and nuisance under property law; privatisation of resources. 14. **War and Foreign Policy.** Isolationism; war as "the health of the state" (Bourne); Cold War revisionism. **Part III: Epilogue** 15. **A Strategy for Liberty.** Education plus a cadre; "abolitionism" (immediate abolition of the state is the goal); against both "left" and "right" opportunism. ## Significance - It is the standard introduction to anarcho-capitalism, and the source for most of the doctrinal claims in @Handre's post. ## Sources - Full text (Mises Institute ed.): https://cdn.mises.org/For%20a%20New%20Liberty%20The%20Libertarian%20Manifesto_3.pdf - Wikipedia, "For a New Liberty": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_a_New_Liberty - Gordon biography: https://mises.org/profile/murray-n-rothbard