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book1957

Atlas Shrugged

Disciplines:
philosophy
fiction
economics/capitalism
philosophy/objectivism

Summary

Ayn Rand's 1957 novel — imagining a world where society's productive geniuses go on strike, withdrawing from an increasingly collectivist economy — which functions as a fictional argument for Rand's Objectivism and capitalism — the most commercially successful philosophical novel.

Core Contribution

Creates the fictional argument for laissez-faire capitalism — Atlas Shrugged's 1,000+ pages dramatize Rand's philosophical argument (that rational self-interest and the creative genius of individuals are the foundation of civilization, and that collectivism destroys them) through the character of John Galt and the strike of producers.

Historical Influences

Aristotle Victor Hugo Nietzsche

Intellectual Lineage

Ayn Rand Random House Rejected by 12 publishers before Random House

Allied Works

The Fountainhead The Virtue of Selfishness

Contemporaries & Peers

No recorded contemporaries.

Minds Influenced

Libertarianism American executive culture

Intellectual Posterity

Atlas Shrugged Who is John Galt? Galt's GulchJohn Galt

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Atlas Shrugged

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