‘Atlas Shrugged’
The Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club found in a 1991 survey that readers of “Atlas Shrugged” said it was the second most influential book in their lives, second only to the Bible.
Published in 1957, “Atlas Shrugged” is the fourth novel written by Ayn Rand, the founder of the philosophy of Objectivism. Stephen Moore gave a quick summary of the moral of “Atlas Shrugged” in the Wall Street Journal:
“For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises — that in most cases they themselves created — by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.”
The book tells the story of an America in which the government exploits the work of leading industrialists and businessmen for the cause of the “greater good” in response to economic “crisis.” It centers around Dagny Taggart, an executive of the Taggart Transcontinental railroad, who sees American society fall apart as the yoke of government bears down on the capitalistic system.
Rand’s working title for her longest work was “The Strike,” referring to a group of entrepeneurs in the novel who refuse to allow the government to increasingly assert its control on their work, art and lives, led by the mysterious John Galt. The book’s opening line, “Who is John Galt?” is repeated throughout the novel by figures so immoralized by their overbearing government that they seem to have given up.
Taggart’s journey to discover why the nation’s great innovators, industrialists, businessmen and artists continue to disappear becomes a journey of self discovery and a realization of the novel’s main theme: that rational self-interest is moral.
More than mere allegory, “Atlas Shrugged” is an intriguing read that forces the reader to question society’s direction and their own moral compass.
