Atlas Shrugged
Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
Who is John Galt? When he says that he will stop the motor of the world, is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battles not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves?
You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the amazing men and women in this book. You will discover why a productive genius becomes a worthless playboy...why a great steel industrialist is working for his own destruction...why a composer gives up his career on the night of his triumph...why a beautiful woman who runs a transcontinental railroad falls in love with the man she has sworn to kill.
Atlas Shrugged, a modern classic and Rand’s most extensive statement of Objectivism—her groundbreaking philosophy—offers the reader the spectacle of human greatness, depicted with all the poetry and power of one of the twentieth century’s leading artists.
Who is John Galt? When he says that he will stop the motor of the world, is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battles not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves?
You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the amazing men and women in this book. You will discover why a productive genius becomes a worthless playboy...why a great steel industrialist is working for his own destruction...why a composer gives up his career on the night of his triumph...why a beautiful woman who runs a transcontinental railroad falls in love with the man she has sworn to kill.
Atlas Shrugged, a modern classic and Rand’s most extensive statement of Objectivism—her groundbreaking philosophy—offers the reader the spectacle of human greatness, depicted with all the poetry and power of one of the twentieth century’s leading artists.
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Community Reviews
Okay, so this book was a commitment; it's 40 hours via audiobook. I recently moved to Orange County and I figured I'd better know a little more about what I am up against. There is no doubt that it was well written and that the characters were interesting and fairly well developed, but the blatant hyperbole of the message was just overwhelming.
It divides people, more or less, into two categories: the intellectual creators/ producers (capitalists) and the entitled looters (socialists). The capitalist characters were portrayed as being rational, intellectual, and attractive. The socialist characters were the opposite: irrational, histrionic, and repulsive. I was so frustrated that Rand never really addressed all of the people and subsequent social issues in-between. As a self-identified liberal, I actually agreed with some of her premises but was appalled by how much the book presented problems in society as a dichotomous issue and ignored so many other important factors. The book suggests condemning all social programs and regulations entirely without any consideration whatsoever for larger societal issues. Slim chance this would work even if real people were as honest and spotless as her protagonists. Definitely not in reality.
I did give this book three stars because of it's literary merit. I'd take away a star if I was looking at message alone.
It divides people, more or less, into two categories: the intellectual creators/ producers (capitalists) and the entitled looters (socialists). The capitalist characters were portrayed as being rational, intellectual, and attractive. The socialist characters were the opposite: irrational, histrionic, and repulsive. I was so frustrated that Rand never really addressed all of the people and subsequent social issues in-between. As a self-identified liberal, I actually agreed with some of her premises but was appalled by how much the book presented problems in society as a dichotomous issue and ignored so many other important factors. The book suggests condemning all social programs and regulations entirely without any consideration whatsoever for larger societal issues. Slim chance this would work even if real people were as honest and spotless as her protagonists. Definitely not in reality.
I did give this book three stars because of it's literary merit. I'd take away a star if I was looking at message alone.
I read this a year or so after high school, so the ideas and the philosophy were new and exciting to me. I can't say I am a Rand enthusiast as far as philosophy goes, but she can definitely draw up an enthralling plot that at least made me want to want to follow the philosophy. The biggest flaw was the John Galt radio broadcast, which cut into a perfectly exciting sequence of events with a 30-or-so page tirade and spelling out of the central philosophy. (See my comments for Ishmael.) I guess technically, I haven't read the WHOLE book, because I ended up skimming most of that superfluous section. But I really did enjoy reading this, very very much, aside from the section I skipped.
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