[woods]

Rothbard was definitely not influenced by Strauss; see his work on Strauss in Roberta Modugno’s edited volume Rothbard vs. the Philosophers: http://library.mises.org/books/Roberta%20A%20Modugno/Murray%20N%20Rothbard%20vs%20The%20Philosophers%20Unpublished%20Writings%20on%20Hayek,%20Mises,%20Strauss,%20and%20Polanyi.pdf

Rothbard communicated this view of Locke to me in person, when I asked him about a Lockean inconsistency (I think it was military conscription, provided for in the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina). He said Locke was on the run or in hiding so much that we shouldn’t be surprised if at times he hedged or failed to take his philosophy to its logical conclusion. It’s necessarily speculative, but not implausible.