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Ayn Rand for Beginners, Andrew Bernstein, 2009, ISBN 9781934389379 Here is a simple introduction to the life and philosophy of Ayn Rand. Along with being the founder of Objectivism, she also wrote Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, two of the 20th Century’s most famous novels. The Fountainhead takes place in the 1920s and 1930s, and is about Howard Roark, a modernist architect in a society that prefers buildings that look like Gothic cathedrals or Greek temples. He is expelled from college, gets fired from one job and loses commissions because of his absolute refusal to compromise his principles. After, unwillingly, working in a quarry, because he was forced out of the architecture field, Roark designs a revolutionary apartment house in New York City. As part of a socialist plot to neutralize Roark, his revolutionary design for a religious temple is criticized as sacrilege, so Roark is branded an enemy of religion and a public enemy. Commissioned to design a government housing project, Roark’s design is changed without his knowledge or consent. Does Roark let it go ahead, or not? In Atlas Shrugged, America is being pushed toward socialism by politicians and intellectuals; also, America’s greatest minds are literally disappearing. Where are they going? In an isolated part of the Colorado Rockies, Dagny Taggart, railroad owner, finds America’s missing smart people. They are on strike against a moral code which says that moral goodness is found in sacrificing one’s self for others, not in finding personal happiness. Taggart also meets John Galt, inventor of an ultra-efficient motor, and leader of the strike. The state kidnaps Galt, and tortures him, in order to force him to become economic dictator of America, and to fix America’s precarious economy. Does Galt give in, or stay true to his principles? For anyone who has read either of Rand’s books, and still don’t understand them, this is the book. For anyone who wants to know more about Objectivism, this is the book. For anyone who simply wants to know more about a famous person of the 20th Century, this is the book. It is a gem. Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer whose website, Dead Trees Review, has over 700 reviews on all subjects, with an emphasis on small press books.
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