50. An Italian Road to Rothbard

50

ROBERTA ADELAIDE MODUGNO

AN ITALIAN ROAD TO ROTHBARD

I’M FROM ITALY, a country with little room for classical liberalism and laissez-faire economics, both culturally and politically; but I grew up in a family sympathetic to classical-liberal ideas and my parents taught me to think for myself. In high school I had the good fortune to meet a non-leftist teacher of philosophy. So I was open to the culture of liberty, but the way I became a scholar of libertarianism has the character of an accident.

In 1995 I won a fellowship from the Italian CNR (National Committee for Research) to do some research on the American feminist movement of the nineteenth century. I had been invited to be a Visiting Scholar by the department of history at Princeton University. In the same year Professor Ginevra Conti Odorisio, my Ph.D. director, introduced me to Professor Dario Antiseri, director of the Methodology Center of Social Sciences of the Luiss University, in Rome, and I became a member of the Center. The Center was dedicated to the study of Karl Popper’s philosophy, the Scottish Enlightenment, and the Austrian School of economics, at that time mainly centered on Menger, Mises, and Hayek. The topic of anarcho-capitalism had not yet aroused the Center’s interest. I am a scholar of the history of political thought, so I was interested in the topics of the Center both from an historical and a political standpoint. This was the time of my reading of Hayek’s Law, Legislation and Liberty, The Constitution of Liberty, The Fatal Conceit, The Road to Serfdom, Mises’s Human Action, and the works of David Hume, John Stuart Mill, and Bernard Mandeville.

Talking with friends and colleagues at the Center, just before leaving for the United States, I thought it would be of some interest to locate some of the works of the people who attended the famous Ludwig von Mises seminar at New York University. So at the end of the summer of 1995, I left for the United States. When I arrived at Princeton I had at my disposal the wonderful Firestone Library. There I conducted my research on Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Anthony, planning to publish an essay on them when I got back to Italy, an intention I in fact carried out. At the same time I was reading Karen Vaughn’s Austrian Economics in America: The Migration of an Idea. In that book, for the first time I saw the name of Murray Rothbard, among the students listed as members of Mises’s seminar. What I was reading about Rothbard in Vaughn’s book was so original and new I almost couldn’t believe it. I decided I had to know more. So in the Firestone Library I read Rothbard’s For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto and The Ethics of Liberty. I was really amazed. In 1995, Rothbard’s books had not yet been published in Italy; and here I found a completely different species of anarchism—individualist anarchism or anarcho-capitalism. I was fascinated. This was explosive stuff. The internal consistency of Rothbard’s discourse, his personal interpretation of natural-law philosophy, and the radicalism and originality of his political philosophy captured me. Moreover I was aware that I was confronting an original systematic contemporary political project; and as an historian of political doctrine, I realized that it was the newest expression of political reflection about people living together, the “good life,” and the meaning and role of the state. I wanted to get to know the author. I thought the best thing to do was to contact the economics department of New York University, where I knew that some of the Austrian heirs of Mises were working, people such as Israel Kirzner, Mario Rizzo, and Peter Boettke. I talked by phone to Mario Rizzo and he kindly invited me to the Austrian seminar. When I arrived at New York University, Professor Rizzo informed me that unfortunately Murray Rothbard had just died, in January 1995. I participated in the seminar and I had the opportunity to meet Mario Rizzo, Israel Kirzner, Peter Boettke, and several others. Unfortunately I had missed the opportunity to meet Rothbard, but coming back to Italy I decided that Rothbard’s anarcho-capitalism had to be my next topic of study. I wanted to write a brief account of Rothbard’s anarcho-capitalism and introduce it to the Italian public. Back in Rome I spoke of my project to Professor Antiseri and Professor Conti Odorisio. Both encouraged me to go on, and Antiseri assured me of the support of the Methodology Center for Social Sciences. So, in 1998, I published Murray Rothbard e l’anarco-capitalismo Americano (Rubbettino Editore).

Meanwhile, in 1997 I was invited to the I.S.I.L. (International Society for Individual Liberty) Conference, taking place that year in Rome. There a very important meeting took place, meaningful also for my future intellectual development. I met Walter Block who suggested that I contact Lew Rockwell, the president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. I did so, and in 1998 I participated, for the first time, in the Austrian Scholars Conference at the Institute. There I had the opportunity to meet such people as Jeff Tucker, Ralph Raico, George Reisman, Joseph Salerno, and David Gordon. With the last of these, I began a collaborative work; and in 2001 our Individualismo metodologico: dalla Scuola austriaca all’anarco-capitalismo (LUISS Edizioni) was published. Visiting the Ludwig von Mises Institute I deepened my knowledge of libertarianism, acquiring more insight into this new system of thought. I began an Italian translation of some of Rothbard’s writings, in order to help publicize his works in Italy. In 2000, with the permission of JoAnn Rothbard and the Ludwig von Mises Institute, I published a collection of Rothbard’s articles, entitled La libertà dei libertari (Rubbettino Editore). I have also done the Italian translations of Individualism and the Philosophy of Social Sciences, published by LUISS Edizioni and of Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty, in the Papers of the Italian Acton Institute.

Roberta Adelaide Modugno teaches history of political thought at the University of Roma III.