Ready Reference Treatise: Atlas Shrugged

By Raja Sharma

“Atlas Shrugged" was Rand’s fourth and last novel. It was first published in 1957. It was her longest novel. Rand considered “Atlas Shrugged” to be her magnum opus in novel writing.

Its working title was “The Strike.” The plot of the story revolves around a dystopian United States where the most creative industrialists, scientists, and artists go on strike. They go to a mountainous hideaway and they build an independent free economy.

John Galt is the hero and the leader of the strike of the industrialists, scientists, and the artists. In his words the strike is described as “stopping the motor of the world.” The major minds behind the nation’s wealth and achievement are withdrawn.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Jan 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301836505

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: Atlas Shrugged

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2012 Raja Sharma

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Chapter 1: About Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was born on 2nd February in 1905 in Saint Petersburg. She was born to a bourgeois family. She is known as one of the most prominent Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter.

Her two bestselling novels are The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. She developed a philosophical system of her own and she called it Objectivism.

Rand was born and educated in Russia. In the year 1926 she immigrated to the United States of America. She started working in Hollywood and she had a play produced on Broadway between 1935 and 1936.

When her first novel The Fountainhead was published in the year 1943, she shot to glory overnight. Her second novel Atlas Shrugged which is said to be her best work was published in 1957. It is said to be her best work.

She was in favour of the individual rights, and it was reflected in her novels and her theoretical works. She believed in Laissez-faire capitalism, enforced by a constitutionally limited government. She did not support collectivism and statism. She was dead against fascism, communism, and socialism. She did not believe in the notion of the welfare state.

Rand zealously promoted ethical egoism, and she rejected the ethic of altruism. She said that knowledge could only be acquired through reason and there is no other way. It is the most import aspect of her philosophy.

In her own words she says, I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows.

Rand’s parents Zinovy Zakhorovich Rosenbaum and Anna Borisovna Rosenbaum were non-observant Jews. She was the eldest of the three daughters. Rand’s father was an educated chemist and in the later years he became a successful pharmacist. He was successful in owning a pharmacy and he also bought the building where the pharmacy was located.

Since her father’s income was good, the family could afford to employ a cook, maid, nurse, and governess. While Rand was in the process of growing up, she was often praised by the elders for her intelligence. She did not have friends her own age, for she was full of intensity.

During the Russian revolution of 1917, Rand was twelve years old. Her sympathies went for Alexander Kerensky, and not with the Tsar. When the Bolsheviks began to gain power, her family life was disrupted.

The Bolsheviks confiscated the pharmacy which was owned by Rand’s father. The family survived and they fled to the Crimea, which was controlled by the White Army during the Russian Civil War.

During her later years, Rand recalled that when she was in high school, she was an atheist. She said that she valued reason and intellect.

Having graduated from high school in the Crimea, she started teaching Red Army soldiers how to read. It was a job for a very short period. Rand liked the job of teaching very much. The illiterate soldiers seemed to be very eager to learn and they respected her very much.

When she was sixteen, Ran decided to go back to her family in Saint Petersburg.

When the Russian Revolution came to its conclusion, the universities were opened to women, including Jews. This gave Rand and opportunity to be included in the first group of women to enroll at Petrograd State University. She majored in history from that university.

During her time in the University, Rand started reading the works of Aristotle and Plato. They had both positive and negative influences on her thoughts in the later years.

She also studied the works of Friedrich Nietzsche. His influence was also great on her. She often read excerpts and summaries of the great philosophic works. She read Victor Hugo, Edmond Rostand, Friedrich Schiller, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Since she was a non-Communist student, she was purged from the university with other students like her shortly before her graduation.

A group of visiting foreign scientists complained to the authorities and as a result some of the purged students were allowed to complete their graduation. Rand was one of those