This summary of Lew Rockwell’s contributions to the liberty movement will show that Lew has done more to spread libertarian ideas than anyone else not named Ron Paul. Lew was born in Boston in 1944. His father was an “Old Right” Republican who gave Lew a copy of Henry Hazlitt’s classic Economics in One Lesson for for his twelfth birthday! Lew would later edit Hazlitt while working as an editor for the conservative publisher Arlington House. Lew also edited Ludwig von Mises.

In 1979, Lew went to Capitol Hill to work as Ron Paul’s Chief of Staff. Dr. Paul and Lew have been close friends and collaborators ever since. In 1981, Lew left Dr. Paul’s office to start the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, which he named after the great Austrian economist. Lew started the Institute at his kitchen table and grew it into the leading center for scholarship in Austrian Economics and libertarian thought. Lew had help from great libertarian leaders like Burt Blumert, a longtime coin dealer, close friend, and patron of Murray Rothbard, Henry Hazlitt, Mises’s widow Margaret, and, of course, Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard.

Rothbard, Mises’s heir and the dean of Austrian economics and founder of the modern libertarian movement, served as the Institute’s Vice-President for Academic Affairs from the Institute’s founding until his passing in 1995.

Thanks to Lew’s vision and hard work in building the Mises Institute, Rothbard’s influence is greater than ever and growing. Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Joesph Salerno, Tom DiLorenzo, and Tom Woods are among other scholars who were able to reach larger audiences thanks to Lew Rockwell’s Institute.

In 1986 the Institute launched Mises University. For almost forty years, Mises University has provided an opportunity for students to listen to and interact with top Austrian-libertarian scholars. Mises also offers yearly Rothbard Seminars for graduate students. The Mises Institute also provides financial assistance to students—which has helped more than 10,000 students with grants ranging from one year book projects to multi-year PHD fellowships. Mises also has a summer fellowship program where graduate and post-doc students can conduct research using the Institute’s resources under the direction of the Institutes faculty.

In 2020, Mises began offering an online Master’s degree program in Austrian Economics. The Institute also makes the works of Mises, Rothbard, and other luminaries of the Austrian school available for free download at Mises.org. You can get a better education in economics, philosophy, and history from Mises.org than you can at an ivy-league university. Another highlight of Mises.org is the daily Mises Wire—where one can find reprints of classic articles as well as fresh commentary on the economic and political news of the day from an Austrian-Libertarian perspective. Lew also runs the popular site LewRockwell,com. For over twenty-five years, his site has provided readers a daily dose of news and opinions questioning the “official”narrative on the economy, foreign policy, and every other topic of interest to libertarians.

While generally avoiding involvement in electoral politics, Lew did work on Ron Paul’s 1988 Libertarian Party oresidential campaign. Of course, Lew was an enthusiastic promoter of Dr. Paul’s 2008 and 2012 Republican campaigns. Lew was thrilled to see multitudes of young people Dr. Paul inspired to learn about the ideas of liberty flock to Mises University and make Mises.org their “go to” site. As a friend of mine put it, “Dr. Paul inspired young people to explore the ideas of liberty—and when they did they found Lew Rockwell and his wonderful Mises Institute.” Lew is also one of the best communicators in the liberty movement. His writing is fueled by his passion for liberty, his disdain for the state and all its deeds, and a willingness to expose not just the evils of statism—but the special interests who manipulate the political process for their own gain.

I first became acquainted with Lew in the early 1990s when I wrote to him about opportunities in the libertarian movement. Lew hired me to do research—and then became a trusted friend and mentor who was more than generous with his time. When I told him I wanted to go to Texas to work on Dr. Paul’s 1996 congressional campaign, Lew spoke to Ron and arranged for me to work on opposition research. This lead to Dr. Paul hiring me to work in his congressional staff.

Lew has continued his legacy work with Dr. Paul by serving as a board member of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. Lew has done more than add his name to the Institute. He has been a source of advice to Daniel McAdams, my fellow Ron Paul congressional staff alumni and the Ron Paul Institute’s executive director. Daniel and myself are just two of the many to have benefited from Lew Rockwell’s wisdom, kindness, and mentorship. This piece hardly does justice to the impact Lew had on not just the libertarian movement but the lives of those in it. There is more I could say about Lew Rockwell and his influence on the liberty movement—but for now I’ll just say, on behalf of everyone who has benefited from Lew Rockwell’s tireless work for liberty: Thank you Lew.