Great followup to Atlas Shrugged! This is a great followup read to Atlas Shrugged! Atlas should impart a great knowledge of Rand's philosophy of life first, and the superb essays in this book should cover a lot of the more practical issues associated with free market capitalism. Its a good one-two punch to gain a greater understanding of politics and philosophy. I highly recommend this book.
Excellent! Brilliantly makes the moral case for Capitalism She certainly makes the case in a true poetic fashion. This collection of essays shows how brilliant of a thinker and writer Ayn Rand was. How she is able to expose the moral fallacies behind the current altruistic/collectivist philosophy is amazing. She puts into words the many things I believe many of us feel inside but don't really know how to express in words, or have been conditioned to suppress by our culture and schooling. This is quite an educational piece of literature. All to often, free-market and freedom advocates fail to make the moral case. They make the mistake of defending freedom and Capitalism from an altruistic perspective- it is the best economic system for the common good. But this is a mistake, as Ayn Rand points out, while that fact is ture, it alone is secondary to the fact that Capitalism is the only political/economic system that is compatible with individual rights. That is its true moral virtue. The Amazon editorial review is a disgrace! It is not an objective review, but a personal ideological attack. The statements made in that review are baseless and no attempt is made to justify them. Amazon should be ashamed!
An interesting read, but Rand is her own school rather than a founding figure in American Conservative Thought. In my view, Ayn Rand's popularity during her heyday had much less to do with the quality of her writing or her thinking than the fact that the demand for writing in support of capitalism and individual liberty was much greater than the supply. She was born in Russia and was 12 when Lenin became the Soviet dictator and her father lost her pharmacy. When she finally arrived in 1926, she stayed and got some work in Hollywood as an extra and a script reader. She wrote some scripts and published her famous novella "Anthem" in 1938. By mid century she published the best selling books "The Fountainhead" (1943), which became a movie with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal in 1949, and "Atlas Shrugged" (1957). She attracted a great deal of attention from the public and gathered some talented disciples.
This book is a collection of essays by Rand as well a few of her more compelling disciples such as Alan Greenspan (yes, that Alan Greenspan), Nathaniel Branden, and Robert Hessen. The focus of this book is on the morality of Capitalism and, in my view is a mixed bag. Of course, I think that of all of Rand's writing. She is a compelling polemicist when attacking collectivism and on the righteousness of economic freedom and political liberty. When she extends her thinking to matters such as religion, altruism, copyrights, and patents things get much weaker. In other words, she is compelling the first few steps in arguing for capitalism, but when trying to use her ideas to create a society she becomes to narrow in her views. Her "objectivism" and focus on self becomes a hammer she uses to hit everything else as if it were a nail.
Rand is still influential and controversies still surround her life and thought. For many people, she is a phase they go through when first coming to understanding their rights as individuals and free economic beings. However, few stay with her thinking for a long period of time. Some do, but most do not. I don't think you can recognize the Alan Greenspan in these pages with the policies he espoused as Chairman of the Fed (regardless of how you regard his tenure).
If you are interested in Rand's political writing, this is a decent read, but I advise you to bring more than a pinch of salt as you read it. While some of her writing is powerful and persuasive, make sure you consider its implications before you jump on her bandwagon.
Personally, I much prefer the conservatism of William F. Buckley Jr., Russell Kirk, and Whittaker Chambers, to name just a Conservatives who did battle with her during her period of greatest fame. Do NOT let anyone try to hang her around your neck as a foundational conservative thinker. She is not. She considered herself her own school (and her claims to being the greatest philosopher of all time have only become more laughable as the decades pass) and is not part of the conservative mainstream in American political thought. Reagan came out of Kirk and Buckley much more than out of Rand.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
At Whose Expense? Ayn Rand, best known for her best selling fictional works outlining her own philosophy of Objectivism, presents a collection of thoughts on economics that provides one of the best explanations of laissez-faire capitalism available.
Rand discusses the subject from a moral stand point which proves to be both refreshing and intriguing. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal was my introduction to the Austrian economic school of thought and to this day, after considerable research on the subject, I cannot think of a better introduction.
Rand, in combination with Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, and Robert Hessen, provides an admirable compilation of thought portraying the very essence of laissez-faire capitalism. The book is based on the founding principals of America and an understanding that "America's abundance was not created by public sacrifices to the `common good', but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes."
If you resent the fact that your life is your own responsibility and no one else's, then you will not like this book. This will account for the less than perfect overall rating this book inevitably will acquire as there are many among the masses who just cannot accept that they might have to be accountable for their own decisions. Such thoughts clearly do not speak to the quality of the book, rather frustration with the ideals; an understandable and anticipated response to a book of this nature.
Anyone seeking to understand the logical and objective ideals of laissez faire capitalists will discover all they are searching for with this book and I highly recommend this to readers and critical thinkers of all views of economic thought.
An Excellent Collection of Essays on Ayn Rand's Political Views This book contains an excellent collection of essays on the political branch of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and is appropriate for anyone seeking to obtain a deeper understanding of her political philosophy beyond reading her novels. A few of my favorite essays contained within include:
* What is Capitalism? -- Ayn Rand's delineation of Capitalism as a political system where individuals live according to the Trader Principle and have a minimal, but central government to prevent the initiation of physical force and fraud.
* Antitrust -- Alan Greenspan's excellent essay that attacks Antitrust legislation as subjective, harmful and immoral.
* Gold and Economic Freedom -- Alan Greenspan's essay on the need for objective currency. In particular, he suggests a return to a 100% gold standard.
* Patents and Copyrights -- Ayn Rand's views on the necessity and morality of intellectual property rights.
* Theory and Practice -- Ayn Rand's views on the invalidity of the "Mind-Body Dichotomy", which is also known as the "Theory-Practice Dichotomy" or the "Thought-Action Dichotomy".
* The Wreckage of the Consensus -- Ayn Rand's views on the debacle that was the war in Vietnam. In my opinion, reading this essay really suggests how she would view the current war in Iraq.
* Man's Rights -- in this essay, Ayn Rand discusses what individual rights are and where they come from. Specifically, she argues that rights come from the nature of man (not from divine origin, society or law) and what they mean in practice.
* The Nature of Government -- this essay contains Ayn Rand's view on government's as an agency of force, how the only proper purpose for a government is to safeguard the rights of men, how the only legitimate functions of government are those necessary to preserve individual rights (i.e., police force, army and a court system) and the necessity for a strong, central government to serve as a final arbiter on the use of retaliatory force. This last point is in stark contrast to various anarcho-capitalists such as David Friedman and Murray Rothbard.
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