Tom Woods on the Old Right

We continue our look at leading figures from the Old Right with guest Tom Woods, who helped publish the late Murray Rothbard’s The Betrayal of the American Right. Rothbard admired the courageous and revisionist voices promoting the Old Republic, and shared their antagonism for war and economic intervention. Tom and Jeff discuss great essays like Albert J. Nock’s “Isaiah’s Job“ and Frank Chodorov’s “The Ethic of the Peddler Class;” the latter a rousing defense of the merchant class against both bureaucrats and the country-club conservatism which would emerge under William F. Buckley. The old antiwar and anti-New Deal works of figures like Menken, Hazlitt, Howard Buffett, Chodorov, and Nock deserve far wider consideration, especially as the “New Right” spirals into the worst of Buckleyite foreign policy and know-nothing economics. You owe it to yourself to explore this great but underappreciated tradition.

Additional Resources

Read Rothbard’s important work: Mises.org/Betrayal

Albert J. Nock’s “Isaiah’s Job:” Mises.org/HAPNock

Frank Chodorov’s “The Ethic of the Peddler Class:” Mises.org/HAPChodorov

Jeff Leskovar on “The Psychology of Human Action:” Mises.org/HAPLeskova