This book is obscenely bad. I don't think I've ever seen more ad hominems in any book I've read.

Dr. Aune is a Marxist, that much is clear. Before he even gets through the introduction, he praises Karl Marx a number of times. He speaks of horrors such as "market failure," the "dictatorship of the bourgoisie," and the anti-democratic nature of the political right.

Why am I reviewing this book anyway? Well, I don't like Marxism, but that doesn't really have anything to do with this. Instead, it's because a good chunk of this thing is spent demonizing Murray Rothbard, a man I had a lot of respect for. When speaking of Murray Rothbard, Dr. Aune is not only offensive but incredibly incompetent or dishonest. Aune claims that Rothbard could not make moral distinctions -- however, Rothbard was not a moral subjectivist. Aune also thinks that Rothbard rejected utilitarianism as an ethical theory because he was opposed to the greatest overall happiness. Anyone who has read Rothbard's work would know this is incorrect -- Rothbard was no utilitarian, but he _did_ argue for policies that would bring greater happiness to society. Aune even has the audacity to say Rothbard was comparable to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Aune also hints (in a not-so-subtle way) that Rothbard advocated slavery. Give me a break. The entire groundwork of Rothbard's political theory was that _no one_ could be the slave of _anyone else_. Aune suggests that anyone defending "freedom of association" is racist and anyone attacking the banking system is an anti-semite. So, if you take Aune's word for it, Rothbard is quite the nasty bigot.

Rothbard is also depicted as a Holocaust denier. THIS IS NOT TRUE. In fact, it is so blatantly false that Dr. Aune should be slapped. Aune must have some kind of justification for this claim, right? Rothbard wrote an article that implored people to examine the _horrors_ perpetrated by the State...in this case, the Holocaust. This article was linked to on some Holocaust denier website. For more examples of Aune's [stupid] research skills, I found that he actually makes mistakes on the background of Rothbard's education and a number of important names.

(Just so you know, Rothbard's critiques of big business and the State dwarf those of socialists like Aune. Actually, Aune himself recognizes this, but since "all free-market defenders are right-wing," this is interpreted as inconsistency.)

If I ever meet Dr. Aune, I would like to ask him if he has actually read anything Rothbard ever wrote. Rothbard's books weren't written in Egyptian or Chinese...they _are_ in English. Given Aune's pile of fiery rhetoric, he understands English well enough. Maybe he just doesn't know anything. After all, he sees the Stalinist Louis Althusser as a wonderful political scholar, but demonizes Murray Rothbard, who vehemently fought against the State's eternal aggression against people. Hmm.

Given Dr. Aune's extreme dishonesty, no one should read this book. As you can probably guess, I am not a Marxist, but there are far better Marxist books than this [junk], and they don't resort to straw men or abusive ad hominems. I recommend this only to people who enjoy wasting their money or those who like reading books by blatant liars.

The author is suffering from the delusion that his analysis of the "fallacy" of a market driven society is more congruent with reality than that of the "free marketeers". The truth is probably closer to neither view having real relevance to the needs of human beings and cultures.

One more scholarly offering to add to, the apparently, urgent drive to make sure the American public's perceptions of each other remain limited to "right-conservative" or "left-liberal". Genuine discussion is probably too dangerous to the "status quo".

Which is, of course, is only my opinion.

James Arnt Aune's Selling the Free Market provides a key to the rhetoric of economic correctness and will greatly appeal to college-level students of economics, examining the 'economically correct' language of conservatives and examining how the free market rhetoric has become part of social and political debates across the country. Key principles of free-market economics are provided.