Editing Murray Rothbard (section)

=== Marriage, Volker Fund, and academia ===
During the 1940s, Rothbard vetted articles for [[Leonard Read]] at the [[Foundation for Economic Education]] think tank, became acquainted with [[Frank Chodorov]], and read widely in libertarian-oriented works by [[Albert Jay Nock]], [[Garet Garrett]], [[Isabel Paterson]], [[H. L. Mencken]], and Austrian School economist [[Ludwig von Mises]].<ref name="Enemy"/>{{rp |page=46}}<ref name=":13" /> Rothbard was greatly influenced by reading Mises's book ''[[Human Action]]'' in 1949.<ref name=":18" /> In the 1950s, when Mises was teaching in the Wall Street division of the [[New York University Stern School of Business]], Rothbard attended his unofficial seminar.<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":14" /> Rothbard wanted to promote libertarian activism; by the mid-1950s, he helped form the Circle Bastiat, a libertarian and anarchist social group in New York City.<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":13" /> He also joined the [[Mont Pelerin Society]] in the 1950s.<ref name=":14">{{Cite book |last=Slobodian |first=Quinn |title=Crack-up capitalism: market radicals and the dream of a world without democracy |date=2023 |publisher=Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Co. |isbn=978-1-250-75390-8 |edition=1st |location=New York}}</ref>

Rothbard attracted the attention of the [[William Volker Fund]], a group that provided financial backing to promote right-wing ideologies in the 1950s and early 1960s.<ref>David Gordon, 2010, ed., [https://mises.org/document/5777/Strictly-Confidential-The-Private-Volker-Fund-Memos-of-Murray-N-RothbardStrictly Confidential: The Private Volker Fund Memos of Murray N. Rothbard] {{Webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140914002006/https://mises.org/document/5777/Strictly-Confidential-The-Private-Volker-Fund-Memos-of-Murray-N-Rothbard |date=September 14, 2014}} Quote from Rothbard: "The Volker Fund concept was to find and grant research funds to hosts of libertarian and right-wing scholars and to draw these scholars together via seminars, conferences, etc."</ref><ref name=":12" /> The Volker Fund paid Rothbard to write a textbook to explain ''Human Action'' in a form that could be used to introduce college undergraduates to Mises's views; a sample chapter he wrote on money and credit won Mises's approval. For ten years, the Volker Fund paid him a retainer as a "senior analyst".<ref name="Enemy" />{{rp |page=54}} As Rothbard continued his work, he enlarged the project. The result was his book ''[[Man, Economy, and State]]'', published in 1962. Upon its publication, Mises praised Rothbard's work effusively.<ref name="Essential">{{cite book |last= Gordon |first=David |author-link=David Gordon (philosopher) |title=The Essential Rothbard |publisher= [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]] |location=Auburn, Alabama |year=2007 |isbn= 978-1-933550-10-7 |oclc= 123960448 |url= https://cdn.mises.org/The%20Essential%20Rothbard_4.pdf |access-date=July 7, 2021 |archive-date=May 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522113238/https://cdn.mises.org/The%20Essential%20Rothbard_4.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|page=14}} In contrast to Mises, who considered security the primary justification for the state, Rothbard in the 1950s began to argue for a privatized market for the military, police and judiciary.<ref name=":11" /> Rothbard's 1963 book ''[[America's Great Depression]]'' blamed government policy failures for the [[Great Depression]], and challenged the widely-held view that [[capitalism]] is unstable.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kaldis |first=Byron |title=Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences |publisher=[[Sage Publications]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-1506332611 |location=United States |page=44}}</ref>

In 1953, Rothbard married JoAnn Beatrice Schumacher (1928–1999),<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://mises.org/library/joann-beatrice-schumacher-rothbard-1928-1999|title = JoAnn Beatrice Schumacher Rothbard (1928–1999)|date = October 30, 1999|access-date = July 20, 2020|archive-date = August 4, 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200804030902/https://mises.org/library/joann-beatrice-schumacher-rothbard-1928-1999 |url-status = live}}</ref> whom he called Joey, in New York City.<ref name= "Essential" />{{rp |page= 124}} She was a historian, Rothbard's personal editor, and a close adviser as well as hostess of his Rothbard Salon. They enjoyed a loving marriage, and Rothbard often called her "the indispensable framework" of his life and achievements. According to her, the Volker Fund's patronage allowed Rothbard to work from home as a freelance theorist and pundit for the first 15 years of their marriage.<ref>Scott Sublett, "Libertarians' Storied Guru", ''Washington Times'', July 30, 1987</ref>

The Volker Fund collapsed in 1962, leading Rothbard to seek employment at various New York academic institutions. He was offered a part-time position teaching economics to engineering students at [[Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute]] in 1966 at age 40. The institution had no economics department or economics majors, and Rothbard derided its social science department as "[[Marxism|Marxist]]". [[Justin Raimondo]], his biographer,{{Sfn|Hawley|2016|p=162}} writes that Rothbard liked teaching at Brooklyn Polytechnic because working only two days a week gave him the freedom to contribute to developments in libertarian politics.<ref name="Enemy" /> Rothbard continued in this role until 1986.<ref name="nytimes">[[David Stout]], [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/11/obituaries/murray-n-rothbard-economist-and-free-market-exponent-68.html Obituary: Murray N. Rothbard, Economist And Free-Market Exponent, 68] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905034710/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/11/obituaries/murray-n-rothbard-economist-and-free-market-exponent-68.html|date=September 5, 2019}}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', January 11, 1995.</ref><ref name= Klein>Peter G. Klein, ed., F.A. Hayek, ''The Fortunes of Liberalism: Essays on Austrian Economics and the Ideal of Freedom'', [[University of Chicago Press]], 2012, [https://books.google.com/books?id=hrS-xhUGKHIC&pg=PA54 p. 54] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230503213142/https://books.google.com/books?id=hrS-xhUGKHIC&pg=PA54 |date=May 3, 2023 }}, {{ISBN|0-22632116-9}}</ref> Then 60 years old, Rothbard left Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute for the [[Lee Business School]] at the [[University of Nevada, Las Vegas]] (UNLV), where he held the title of S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics, a chair endowed by a libertarian businessman.<ref>Rockwell, Llewellyn H. (May 31, 2007). [https://mises.org/daily/2584/ "Three National Treasures."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914010718/https://mises.org/daily/2584/ |date= September 14, 2014}} Mises.org</ref><ref name=":10">{{cite book |editor1-first= Bruce |editor1-last= Frohnen |editor2-first= Jeremy |editor2-last= Beer |editor3-first=Jeffrey O. |editor3-last= Nelson |chapter= Rothbard, Murray (1926–95) |title= American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia |publisher= ISI Books |location= Wilmington, [[Delaware|DE]] |year= 2006 |isbn= 978-1-932236-43-9 |page=750 | quote = Only after several decades of teaching at the Polytechnic Institute of New York did Rothbard obtain an endowed chair, and like that of Mises at NYU, his own at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas was established by an admiring benefactor.}}</ref>

According to Rothbard's friend, colleague, and fellow Misesian economist [[Hans-Hermann Hoppe]], Rothbard led a "fringe existence" in academia, but he was able to attract a large number of "students and disciples" through his writings, thereby becoming "the creator and one of the principal agents of the contemporary libertarian movement".<ref name=":9">Hoppe, Hans-Hermann (1999). [https://mises.org/etexts/HHHonMNR.pdf "Murray N. Rothbard: Economics, Science, and Liberty."] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140224060422/http://mises.org/etexts/hhhonmnr.pdf |date= February 24, 2014}} Mises.org</ref> Libertarian economist Jeffrey Herbener, who called Rothbard his friend and "intellectual mentor", said in a memoriam that Rothbard received "only ostracism" from mainstream academia.<ref>Herbener, J. (1995). L. Rockwell (ed.), [http://library.freecapitalists.org/books/Murray%20N%20Rothbard/memoriam.pdf ''Murray Rothbard, In Memoriam''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220074229/http://library.freecapitalists.org/books/Murray%20N%20Rothbard/memoriam.pdf|date=December 20, 2014}}. Auburn, AL.: [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]]. p. 87</ref> Rothbard kept his position at UNLV from 1986 until his death.<ref name="nytimes" />