Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Atlas Shrugged
Book Review: Capitalism at its worst, storytelling at its dullest
Summary: 1 Stars
Rand is the ultimate capitalist who makes Margeret Thatcher sound like Karl Marx. This novel is the complete and explicit statement of her philosophy on life and existence, done so by way of a painfully boring storyline about railway businessmen and women. The philosophy is called Objectivism, a dubious description for a political theory that is to corporate America what Communism was to Soviet Russia.But that's only part of it, since Ms. Rand confidently proclaimed herself as the first human ever to prove the non-existence of God, or any meaning in the universe outside of the physical reality and existence we directly perceive. That's right - atheism as a self-evident fact! How? Logic of course. It's that simple, or at least Ayn Rand thinks so. And it's from this that the rest of her Objectivist philosophy flows, from politics to art, from psychology to ethics... and pretty grim reading it is to. For here we have a world where we are expected to work ourselves into early graves for the simple sake of it, where we must slog our guts out to make our employers richer (since, according to her, it is they who are solely responsible for any and all progress), and the market is the best place to achieve social justice.
The plot revolves around a failing rail industry in the US, and other related problems in society which the author blames squarely on "collectivists", or socialists to the rest of us. The characters are contrived in such a way as to make the best case for her argument on how things ought to be, and as a result are laughingly unreal and find no comparison in the real world. I won't bore you with the details, but what we end up with here is a rebellion of the rich against the opressive governments and the uneducated majority; who are all taught a lesson on how the rich and powerful must be allowed to have their way - this being achieved by means of a media broadcast by what the author regards as the perfect man.
Rand's basic moral high-ground is her belief that government above minimum requirements is repression, that we should operate as a society of individuals trading amongst one another with minimal interference from the state. Basically, unfettered capitalism. She's ignorant of one fact though - that one person's freedom is often another's imprisonment. Money and power are inherently linked, and that includes the power to exploit. It means your working conditions and pay are dictated by a wealthy elite, who throughout history have used the masses ruthlessly for their own ends. It is a form of legalised anarchy, the law of the corporate jungle. It's just a shame that Ayn Rand and her followers weren't around in early industrial Britain to see the full horrific realisation of that ideal. Freedom and liberty mean different things to different people.
To Rand's credit, I do think that she was genuine and passionate about what she believed in, which to my mind makes this a good insight into the capitalist philosophy and way of thinking. I'm not a socialist, but reading this book had me rejecting capitalist ideology once and for all. Perhaps for that reason only, this book is worth buying.
Book Review: A good and insightful read
Summary: 4 Stars
As can be seen from the reviews this is not really a book which people tend to be luke warm about (I am surprised that those who so intensely disliked it had the energy to read the whole thing). I have decided to be controversial and give this a four star rating rather than either a one or a five. The rational for my choice of rating is that although this book contains a lot of controversial and powerful ideas, it is at the expense of the book as literature. Although an interesting read the characters are very one dimensional. This is a necessary evil if one is serious about hammering home a message of what values a good person has and what values (or lack of them) a bad person has,and reinforces the books political message, but does not leave much space for character exploration. The story is interesting, and at times thrilling, and certainly I felt that I was interested in what was going to happen next. However, it is very repetitive, and in truth Ayn Rand would have done well to trim her book by a full two thirds. This would not have impaired the book's ability to convey its capitalist gospel (not a good term - I much prefer libertarian - although this is not a term favoured by Ayn Rand), would have immensely improved its literary value, and would have done us capitalists and libertarians a very great favour by expanding the potential readership circle (this hefty volume is likely to scare off all but those with an abundance of time)and thus delivering its insights to more people.One note to all those left leaning people who are not inclined to read the book on the basis that it will annoy them no end. Although this book is an unabashed endorsement of 'capitalism' in a pure form there is much else in this book which is worth thinking about. To my mind, Rand's thinking on integrity, pride, and independence are particulary powerful. Although Rand herself was scornful of anybody who would pick and choose the bits they liked of her philosophy (arguing, to my mind erroneously, that they were a unified whole) she can hardly stop us. Her writings will also tell us a great deal of the elementary basics of a market economy, and especially how, in contradiction to some of the leftwing comments on this book, pure capitalism does not lead to an anarchistic dog eat dog world, but rather to a positive sum game (assuming that we are happy with the initial distribution of capital and that nobody is forced into transactions a capitalist system will never be a zero sum game, indeed not even one 'move' in the game will have a negative sum). To see that this is the true you need only note that even in our imperfect welfare states where the free market is regulated and taxed heavily our income has grown.
All in all, this is an important book and a good read, although far too long for its own good. If you are vaguely interested in the message or are curious about what all the fuss is about, but feel daunted by book's length then try 'the Fountainhead' instead. This will give you a good idea about the general thrust of 'Atlas Shrugged'.
Book Review: Amazing book, great philosophy
Summary: 5 Stars
Ayn Rand Is Russian! So to all those who moan about Americans....Whether or not you agree with the philosophy, you have to admire her ability to weave a philosophy into a novel. Outstanding! If everybody read this book, the world would possibly be far richer (not just in money) because of the attitudes it could change.
Book Review: This book made an impact on me!
Summary: 5 Stars
In case this is your first encounter with this book, It is a fresh story but a continuation to Ayn Rand's philosophy that started out with books like "We the living" where she new something was wrong but could not put her finger on it. She progressed to books as "The Fountainhead" where she could describe the problem quite well. Now in "Atlas Shrugged she has come up with a plausible answer to the problem. In essence your head can work without your hands yet your hands can not work without your head.I can tell you of my experience with the book. Normally my reviews are flippant and I include nothing personal. I must have been a late bloomer or just unlucky, because I did not come across "Atlas shrugged" until I was 20 years old. I was in the military and needed some reading material. My younger sister sent me the book. It looks just a little thick to me but I started reading, and reading and reading. I do not know if it was the story or the clarity of thought. Now I saw everything in a new or different light. It felt weird to see the newspapers and politics paralleling the book.
I was in New York (West Point) at the time and three things stood out to this day. The was a public service announcement on the TV "The law says that an apartment owner can not charge more than 30% of what you make" and at the same time the apartment buildings were closing down. The postal carriers went on strike and the military had to deliver the mail. That winter the snowplow drivers went on strike. When the strike was over the snowplows were missing. They found them the next summer in an empty lot.
There is nothing quite as convincing as watching the world and book parallel. I have mellowed out some sense then. However, I really think that this book should be read by high school where it would have maximum impact of one's train of thought.
Book Review: Is it a novel or a work of philosophy?
Summary: 3 Stars
I really wasn't sure what I would be letting myself in for with this book. It's a pretty weighty volume, but that isn't what made me approach it with trepidation - it was the reputation of the book.Firstly, the introduction was very enlightening, and I was surprised to find out how arrogant and conceited Ayn Rand appeared to be from statements that she made. Her opinion was that no one had written a book as original as hers before, and that this was a first in literature. To live up to that sort of hype, the book would need to be the best that I have ever read, so I was very intrigued. There is also her view on whether she is a novellist or a philosopher, and her answer comes down on the side of novellist, but only so that she can get her philosophy across to others.
The first few pages make for gripping reading (although it all sounds very dated now, and the assumption that high speed trains would be the most efficient way to travel from coast to coast US is obviously a not too accurate prediction), and her text is definitely interesting. What lets it down is the dialog, as conversations seem to bear no resemblance to ordinary everyday conversation and she tries to crowbar her philosophy into the mouths of all the characters.
The story itself is not as original as Ayn Rand thinks. There were a handful of dystopian novels that preceded hers, most of which come higher on lists of classics than hers, probably because they concentrate on being novels rather than half novel, half philosophical work. She is certainly a good story teller, but the story is let down by the sometimes unrealistic dialog and the constant attempts to introduce her philosophy.
The philosophy that she propounds is Objectivism, which is a sort of pro-capitalism, anti-religion, pro-ego, anti-communist blueprint for corporate America. Without the philosophy the book would have been more enjoyable, and the characters, whilst very rounded out, would have been able to communicate more effectively.
I think this is a 4 star novel, with some 2 star philosophy, so overall - 3 stars.