Happy Birthday Lew!

By David Gordon

Today is Lew Rockwell’s birthday, and this is a fitting time to reflect on his significance for Austrian economics and for libertarianism. Lew has been the foremost advocate and promoter of the work of Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard. He founded the Mises Institute in 1982 in order to bring to the attention of a wide scholarly and popular audience Mises and Rothbard’s distinctive and far-reaching vision. He did so at a time when the vast forces of the Kochtopus were arrayed against Rothbard. Thanks to him and his colleagues at the Institute, thousands of students over more than thirty years have become acquainted with Austrian economics of the most uncompromising sort.

Lew has in addition played a major role in the Ron Paul movement, as a close adviser and friend to this indomitable champion of liberty. In his many books, Lew has defended a comprehensive analysis of what we need to do to attain a free society. Like Murray Rothbard, Lew Rockwell hates the state.

I’m very grateful to Lew also for his support for my work over many years, and for his friendship.

The above originally appeared at LewRockwell.com.