Product Description

At last, Ayn Rand's masterpiece is available to her millions of loyal readers in trade paperback.

With this acclaimed work and its immortal query, "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. Atlas Shrugged made Rand not only one of the most popular novelists of the century, but one of its most influential thinkers.

Atlas Shrugged is the astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read. It is a mystery, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder--and rebirth--of man's spirit.

* Atlas Shrugged is the "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #306 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1200 pages

Review
Novel by Ayn Rand, published in 1957. The book's female protagonist, Dagny Taggart, struggles to manage a transcontinental railroad amid the pressures and restrictions of massive bureaucracy. Her antagonistic reaction to a libertarian group seeking an end to government regulation is later echoed and modified in her encounter with a utopian community, Galt's Gulch, whose members regard self-determination rather than collective responsibility as the highest ideal. The novel contains the most complete presentation of Rand's personal philosophy, known as objectivism, in fictional form. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

About the Author
AYN RAND is the author of Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged, and numerous non-fiction essays on philosophy, ethics, politics, art, and literature. Her philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide audience of adherents and admirers. She died in March 1982.

Customer Reviews

One of the best books ever written
The abridged audio version of this book, as read by Edward Herrmann, is an astounding piece of literature, a piece of pop culture, and must read to understand the philosophies of free market economics, liberty, and capitalism.

The story is a dystopic account of the fall of American civilization because of a strike of the people of the mind because of people known as the looters who look to interfere with their ability to make money and profit, and redistribute the wealth of those who created it. The more the government interferes in the economy, the more things fall apart and more men of the mind begin their strike.

Edward Herrmann does perhaps the best job of reading a book that I've ever heard. It is unobtrusive, yet forceful, and he does a great job giving voices to individual characters.

If you can't read the book, have it read to you! This is a rare 5 star review!!

Cautionary Tale and Eeriely Accurate Prognostication of Economy Collapse
I read that book about seven years ago because I was intensely curious about Ayn Rand and her books. So many people waiting for the bus or riding one seemed to be into her books so I bought a hardback edition and started reading it. I could not stop reading it and turning the pages. When I came to the last page, I was so terribly disappointed that the marvellous story had to come to the end. I WANTED MORE!!!

That book made me see how the material value is determined and how it is diminished by the intensive governmental intervention as well as the corporate interference.

The strong parallel between the society as depicted in the 1957 book and the society in reality is astoundingly accurate. You owe it to yourself to read this book as to understand the financial crisis of 2008 better.

Ayn Rand does understand the economy and its ramification on the modern society so splendidly. She also told it very brilliantly.

I shan't reveal who is John Galt and what is the "motor" that moved the world.

good book
I only got half way through before life got in the way. It was an interesting read and I'm hoping I can get back to it soon.