The Young Rothbard: An Uncomfortable Neoclassical Economist

In this welcome lecture to the 2025 Rothbard Graduate Seminar, Joseph Salerno dismantles the myth that Murray Rothbard was an outsider to mainstream economics. Drawing on Rothbard’s deep academic training and early career, Salerno reveals how Rothbard was a thoroughly trained neoclassical economist before his conversion to Austrian economics. The talk highlights Rothbard’s engagement with institutionalism, positivism, and Keynesianism, and how his discovery of Mises and praxeology transformed his outlook—ultimately forging one of the most original and radical economists of the 20th century. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on Sunday, June 8, 2025.