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AnthemPublished in 1938 & 1946

Anthem is Ayn Rands hymn to mans ego. It is the story of one mans rebellion against a totalitarian, collectivist society. Equality 7-2521 is a young man who yearns to understand the Science of Things. But he lives in a bleak, dystopian future where independent thought is a crime and where science and technology have regressed to primitive levels.

All expressions of individualism have been suppressed in the world of Anthem; personal possessions are nonexistent, individual preferences are condemned as sinful and romantic love is forbidden. Obedience to the collective is so deeply ingrained that the very word I has been erased from the language.

In pursuit of his quest for knowledge, Equality 7-2521 struggles to answer the questions that burn within him questions that ultimately lead him to uncover the mystery behind his societys downfall and to find the key to a future of freedom and progress.

The countrys top banker a leading oil producer a once-revered professor an acclaimed composer a distinguished judge. All vanish without explanation and without trace.

A copper magnate becomes a worthless playboy. A philosopher-turned-pirate is rumored to roam the seas. The remnants of a brilliant invention are left as scrap in an abandoned factory.

What is happening to the world? Why does it seem to be in a state of decay? Can it be saved and how?

Atlas Shrugged is a mystery story, not about the murder of a mans body, but about the murder and rebirth of mans spirit.

Follow along as industrialist Hank Rearden and railroad executive Dagny Taggart struggle to keep the country afloat and unravel the mysteries that confront them.

Discover why, at every turn, they are met with public opposition and new government roadblocks, taxes and controls and with the disappearance of the nations most competent men and women.

Will Hank and Dagny succeed in saving the country and will they discover the answer to the question Who is John Galt?

In her first notes for The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand describes its purpose as a defense of egoism in its real meaning . . . a new definition of egoism and its living example. She later states its theme as individualism versus collectivism, not in politics, but in mans soul; the psychological motivations and the basic premises that produce the character of an individualist or a collectivist.

The living example of egoism is Howard Roark, an architect and innovator, who breaks with tradition, [and] recognizes no authority but that of his own independent judgment. Roarks individualism is contrasted with the spiritual collectivism of many of the other characters, who are variations on the theme of second-handedness thinking, acting and living second-hand.

Roark struggles to endure not merely professional rejection, but also the enmity of Ellsworth Toohey, beloved humanitarian and leading architectural critic; of Gail Wynand, powerful publisher; and of Dominique Francon, the beautiful columnist who loves him fervently yet is bent on destroying his career.

The Fountainhead earned Rand a lasting reputation as one of historys greatest champions of individualism.

The setting is Soviet Russia, early 1920s. Kira Argounova, a university engineering student who wants a career building bridges, falls in love with Leo Kovalensky, son of a czarist hero. Both Kira and Leo yearn to shape their own future but they are trapped in a communist state that claims the right to sacrifice individual lives for the sake of the collective.

When Kira is kicked out of the university as an undesirable and Leos past makes him unemployable, life becomes a grim struggle for physical survival. Leo contracts tuberculosis but cant get admitted to a state sanitarium, despite Kiras best efforts. Desperate, she seeks help from Andrei Taganov, an ardent young communist whose love for Kira helps awaken him to the meaning of genuine personal values, not to be surrendered for others sake.

What will happen as these three struggle to be living individuals in defiance of the power of the collectivist state?

The method of capitalisms destruction, Ayn Rand writes, rests on never letting the world discover what it is that is being destroyed. InCapitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Rand and her colleagues define a new view of capitalisms meaning, history, and philosophic basis and set out to demolish many of the myths surrounding capitalism.

Does capitalism lead to depressions, monopolies, child labor or war? Why is big business so hated? Why have conservatives failed to stop the growth of the state? Is religion compatible with capitalism? Is government regulation the solution to economic problems or their cause? What is freedom and what kind of government does it require? Is capitalism moral?

Capitalism: The Unknown Idealtackles these and other timeless questions about capitalism, and lays out Rands provocative thesis: that the system of laissez-faire capitalism is a moral ideal.

In the lengthy introductory essay ofFor the New Intellectual, Rand argues that America and Western civilization are bankrupt, and that the cause of the bankruptcy is the failure of philosophy: specifically, the failure of philosophers and intellectuals to define and advocate a philosophy of reason.

In the subsequent selections, culled from her novels, Rand presents the outline of her philosophy of reason, which she calls Objectivism. These excerpts cover major topics in philosophy from Objectivisms basic axioms to its new theory of free will to its radical ethics of rational egoism to its moral-philosophic case for laissez-faire capitalism.

For the New Intellectualcontains some of Rands most important passages on other philosophers, including Aristotle, Plato, Hume, Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche. Many of its selections also develop Rands unprecedented critique of altruism the notion that our basic moral obligation is to live for others.

Philosophy: Who Needs Itis the last work planned by Ayn Rand prior to her death in 1982. In these essays, Rand shows how abstract ideas have profound real-life consequences. She identifies connections between egalitarianism and inflation, collectivism and the regulation of pornography, alcoholism, and the problem of free will vs. determinism.

Contrary to the notion that philosophy is detached from the practical concerns of life, Rand sees philosophys influence everywhere, leading her to ask questions like: How can a persons views about metaphysics impact his ambition and self-confidence? How has the notion of duty given morality a bad name? How did the belief that faith is superior to reason unleash the horrors of twentieth-century totalitarianism?

Philosophy: Who Needs Italso includes Rands assessment of a number of prominent thinkers, including John Rawls, John Maynard Keynes, B. F. Skinner, and, above all, Immanuel Kant, whom Rand regards as her arch philosophical adversary.

In these eighteen essays, readers learn why Rands answer to the question of who needs philosophy is an emphatic: you do.

In this collection, Ayn Rand explains the indispensable function of art in mans life (chapter 1), the source of mans deeply personal, emotional response to art (chapter 2), and how an artists fundamental, often unstated view of man and of the world shapes his creations (chapter 3). In a chapter that includes an extended discussion of music, Rand explores the valid forms of art (chapter 4).

Rand also presents her distinctive theory of literature (chapter 5) and sheds new light on Romanticism, under which category Rand classified her own work (chapters 6 and 10). Later essays explain how contemporary art reveals the debased intellectual and esthetic state of our culture (chapters 7, 8 and 9).

In the final essay (chapter 11), Rand articulates the goal of her own fiction writing and upholds the value of art that depicts men as they might be and ought to be. Chapter 12 is a short story Rand wrote in 1940, illustrating how an artists sense of life directs his subconscious and shapes his creative imagination.

Most ethical discussions take for granted the supreme moral value of selfless service. Debate then centers on details: Should we serve an alleged God or substitute society for God? How much sacrifice is required? Whos entitled to benefit from others sacrifices?

In this volumes lead essay, The Objectivist Ethics, Ayn Rand challenges that basic assumption by reconsidering ethics from the ground up. Why, she asks, does man need morality in the first place? Her answer to that question culminates in the definition of a new code of morality, based in rational self-interest, aimed at each individuals life and happiness, and rejecting sacrifice as immoral.

In additional articles, Rand expands her theory and discusses practical questions such as: Do people face intractable conflicts of interest? Isnt everyone selfish? Doesnt life require compromise? How do I live in an irrational society? What about the needs of others? What are political rights? Whats the rational function of government? Her fresh, provocative answers cast new light on what it means to be genuinely selfish.

Mans mind is able to grasp the atomic structure of water and the trajectory of a planet. What explains this enormous cognitive power, far outstripping that of any other animal? The key, Ayn Rand argues, is that man can form and use concepts.

InIntroduction to Objectivist Epistemology, Rand introduces her theory of knowledge by means of its central feature, a new theory of the nature and formation of concepts. Along the way, she provides her fundamental answer to the Kantian turn in epistemology, offering a non-skeptical, non-mystical approach to knowledge.

The 1990 second edition contains edited transcripts of four workshops Rand conducted between 1969 and 1971 with professors and experts in philosophy, physics and mathematics. These extended conversations show Rands mind at work in real time, providing additional detail, examples, explanation and context for her theory.

Although Ayn Rand defined a full philosophic system, which she called Objectivism, she never wrote a comprehensive, nonfiction presentation of it. Rands interest in philosophy stemmed originally from her desire to create heroic fictional characters for her novels, especiallyAtlas Shrugged, whose final philosophic speech she called Objectivisms briefest summary.

In 1976, philosopher Leonard Peikoff, her longtime student and associate, gave a lecture course that Rand described as the only authorized presentation of the entire theoretical structure of Objectivism, i.e., the only one that I know of my own knowledge to be fully accurate.

Following Rands death, Peikoff edited and reorganized those lectures to produceObjectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, the first comprehensive statement of her philosophy. Published in 1991, this book presents Rands entire philosophy metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics and esthetics in essentialized and systematic form.

The 60s are usually glorified as a time when Americas youth stood up in rebellion against the cultural establishment. Protesting everything from Vietnam to industrial capitalism, college students under the banner of the New Left forcibly occupied campus buildings and idolized Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro and were hailed as idealistic revolutionaries.

Ayn Rand viewed them very differently.

In a number of essays, she analyzes the campus protests and the ideology of the New Left, concluding that far from rebelling, they were slavishly following every basic idea of their teachers and that far from being idealistic, they were attacking the key foundations of a rational, free society.

Rands writings on these and related topics were collected inThe New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution(1971). A 1999 edition,Return of the Primitive, added supplementary articles, including three by editor Peter Schwartz analyzing the New Lefts enduring legacy.

Between 1961, when she gave her first talk at Ford Hall Forum in Boston, and 1981, when she gave the last talk of her life in New Orleans, Ayn Rand spoke and wrote about topics as different as education, medicine, Vietnam and the papal encyclicalHumanae Vitae (Of Human Life).

The Voice of Reasonis a collection of these pieces gathered in book form for the first time. Here we get some of Rands most in-depth treatments of issues such as religion, sex, abortion, foreign policy and the mixed economy.

With Rands selections are five essays by philosopher Leonard Peikoff, Rands longtime associate and literary executor, covering such topics as education and socialized medicine, as well as a piece by Objectivist scholar Peter Schwartz on the difference between libertarianism and Objectivism.

The work concludes with Peikoffs epilogue, My Thirty Years with Ayn Rand: An Intellectual Memoir, which answers the question What was Ayn Rand really like?

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