Study Guide to Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market

viii Study Guide to Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market
are handled within each chapter. A typical chapter 1 begins with
a one-page summary. This is then followed by a detailed outline
of the chapter, which follows Rothbard’s format (Arabic numerals,
then English letters, etc.) for sections and subsections. (The
length of Rothbard’s chapter consequently influences the length
of the detailed outline in the study guide.) Following the
detailed outline are the “contributions” of the chapter. Sometimes
these observations refer to techniques or doctrines that
are unique to the Austrian School, while at other times they
refer to innovations engineered by Rothbard himself. (This distinction
is always made clear.) The next section contains the
technical details, intended for advanced readers (in particular
graduate students). Generally, in this section I contrasted Rothbard’s
approach with mainstream economics, but I also (especially
for chapters from Power and Market) would sometimes
consider objections that Rothbard had not, or would simply
take a given discussion a little further than he had done in the
text.
Finally, each chapter of the study guide contains ten questions.
Some of the questions merely test reading comprehension;
they ensure that the conscientious (but perhaps intimidated
and/or overwhelmed) reader is absorbing the important
points. However, especially to challenge the more advanced
readers, some of the questions take an advocatus diaboli approach
and point to ostensible contradictions or problems with Rothbard’s
analysis. (Whether the reader can resolve the alleged
flaws or not, he or she will undoubtedly understand Rothbard’s
case much more after considering these questions.) Where
1 I say “typical” because some chapters in Power and Market are so
short that their corresponding treatments in this study guide contain
merely the summary or the detailed outline.