Murray N. Rothbard vs. the Philosophers - Ludwig von Mises Institute

REVIEWS AND COMMENTS BY MURRAY N. ROTHBARD 99
The Straussian method alone, it seems to me, is enough
to disqualify this book from National Book Foundation, or
any other serious consideration, for that matter. Certainly if
any book is a travesty on scholarship, this is it. But let us
now push on from the method to the content of Strauss’s
ideas and his differences with Machiavelli, which aren’t so
good either. Now, it is true that Strauss criticizes Machiavelli
for being amoral, pro-tyranny, interested only in social
morality and the appearance of morality, etc. But the surprising
thing to me was that there was really very little of
this in the book, despite the promise of the introduction. For
the main substance of the book is a bitter attack on Machiavelli,
not for being unethical, but for being an atheist and
a humanist. Strauss’s bitter quarrel is largely theological, an
attack on Machiavelli for being the first thinker to be non-
Christian, to dismiss the Bible as fairy tales, etc.
Now, to paraphrase Max Eastman’s classic review of Bill
Buckley’s God and Man at Yale, I do not believe that it
should be the function of the National Book Foundation to
lead American intellectuals to Jesus. 48 Surely, there are
innumerable sources where anyone who wants to can imbibe
Christianity without having special grants to disseminate it.
This purely theological quarrel, with no ethical overtones
except the complaint that Machiavelli substitutes interest in
man for interest in God, takes up the bulk of Strauss’s discourse
on Machiavelli.
Finally, toward the end of the final chapter, Strauss leaves
his favorite theme of Christianity betrayed, and turns to matters
that concern us more: the ethical and the political. But
even here, I found Strauss with as many or more bad points
as good ones. For, he doesn’t really stress Machiavelli being
pro-tyranny, amoral, etc. What he stresses as much or more,
are the following complaints against Machiavelli: he is proselfishness
of the individual, as against the older concern for
48 William F. Buckley, God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of
Academic Freedom (Chicago: Regnery, 1951).