|
Atlas Shrugged | 
| Author: Ayn Rand
Publisher: Plume
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
Buy New: $12.27
You Save: $10.73 (47%)
New (38) Used (30) Collectible (6) from $8.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  1518 reviews
Sales Rank: 436
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1200
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 2
ISBN: 0452011876
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780452011878
ASIN: 0452011876
Publication Date: August 1, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Absolutely Brand New & In Stock. 100% 30-Day Money Back. Direct from our warehouse. Ships by USPS. 1+ million customers served-In business since 1986. Happy Customers is Our #1 Goal. Toll Free Support
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Book 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
Download Description
Who is John Galt?This famous rhetorical question rings through Ayn Rand's best-selling novel as the people's anthem of despair in depressed economic times. Set in the future, the novel follows capitalist magnates as they battle looters, strikers, and the impending ruin of the United States' economy. The romantic and intellectual relationship between Dagny Taggart, the heroine, and John Galt, whose identity as the leader of the strike is eventually revealed, carries the novel to its climax. This novel, controversial when it first appeared in 1957, purports Rand's objectivist philosophy that the individual is free to pursue his or her own happiness without bowing to God or society. Objectivism in action upholds full laissez-faire capitalism as the only philosophy that can protect humankind's freedom to think, to be inventive, and to live productively.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 1513 more reviews...
 Rand Fan July 31, 2008
This book is a classic - a (very) long novel that puts forth a cohesive presentation of her conservative point of view. Now, fifty (50) years later we can see the reality of her brilliance with the crumbling of our government and society.
A must-read for your life July 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
By far one of the best books I have ever read. Whether or not you agree with Rand's philosophy, this book will make you think.
A Timless Message July 27, 2008
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is not just a novel; it is an intellectual illustration of the author's philosophy. It is also a suspense thriller, a mystery, a love story, and a self help book all rolled into one. It has been in continuous publication for over fifty years and people are still reading it. Why? Because though the philosophy is not perfect, it is not nearly as flawed as the other philosophies dished up and accepted for the last couple of thousand years. Ordinary man is not a worm; he is an individual and the values he adopts as an individual matter, they are the things that keep civilization moving, or freeze it into a static corpse. In reading Confucius one learns everyone and everything has a place and in this there is harmony, but there is no place for change. This is a major fault found in most philosophies and religious doctrines. The acceptable strategies for achieving happiness are all based on yesterday and today, none of them work when pitted against the only true constant of the universe, Change. Tomorrow always brings change, whether embraced or rejected, it comes and must be dealt with.
The characters in this story at the time of their creation were considered to be much larger than life, but life has gotten bigger since then and in today's world they feel only a little above real people we see in the news all the time. The story exposes the dark side of communism and the dangers of government meddling with the market, while inventors and entrepreneurs struggle to move the world into tomorrow. It begins with the sensing of change, the world is sliding into decay and stagnation. People have adopted cultural philosophies that are not logical and their civilization is not just slowing down, it's starting to fall backward. Instead of admiring achievement, people vilify it, feeling they should support those who can't achieve because this is a more noble way of behaving. Their philosophies are a lot like the recent acceptance of PC (politically correctness), where the truth and validity of an argument was not as important how it was stated and some things could not be discussed at all because such discussions were deemed not PC.
This is a book that will entertain and enlighten you and it could change the way you feel about those who criticize your achievements. At the time it was published the book had a message, but times have changed and interestingly enough the message has grown larger.
In defense of human liberty July 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Despite the ramblings of those who are hostile to Ayn Rand, and her passionate defense of human liberty, the fundamental issues she addresses are not that difficult to understand.
Do you believe that your life should be the property of others, to be disposed of as they see fit, or not? Ayn Rand took the stand that your life belongs to you, to be lived as you see fit.
Critics of Ayn Rand must agree, at least to some extent, with folks like Adolph Hitler (and his beneficent National Socialist party) that the individual should be considered the property of others (in this case, the state). These people really should think more carefully about the company they keep, at least on an intellectual level. But, then, what's a "little" slavery?
What ought to be. July 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The first thing that I would like to note about the negative reviews is that there always seems to be disparaging remarks about the length of the book, over 1000 pages. Essentially, these reviewers are saying that Ms. Rand is belaboring her points. Well, the idea is to make you THINK about what is being said. It took me six months to read this the first time through; it was like a very rich meal that I took in courses. I recommend other readers consider doing the same.
I just read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett at nearly 1000 pages. According to many of the negative reviewers, Mr. Follett must have been belaboring his points about building cathedrals and surviving the tyranny of 13th century Europe (which, by the way, was the logical result of a Christian philosophy, fully applied).
To go on, many of the positive reviewers have done a great job of talking about some of the intricacies of the plot. What I would like to talk about is the significance of the philosophy in the character development. The heroes and villians are often described as cartoonish and one-dimensional because no one could be so idealistic; either to the positive or the negative. I disagree. Being from Northern California and currently living in Seattle, I am aware of many, many people that have devolved into the kind of creatures that Ms. Rand describes in her characters of Wesley Smoot, James Taggart and Betty Pope. Walk through the streets of Seattle or San Francisco and it is also easy to pick out the sullen, depressed, dismal faces of the nameless crowds she describes that cry out for the perverted "social justice" that society is currently idealizing.
I also know a few--a very few--of the Dagny Taggarts and the James Reardens and the Francisco d'Anconias of the world. They keep my hope for this world alive. And they have something in common. If they are not already explicitly Objectivists, when I describe the basic tenants of the philosophy (its really very simple to understand, with layers that are simply iterations of the three axioms upon which it is built) the singular response they give is "What else would you believe?" Really, those are the ones that give me the most hope. I've met two.
Keep in mind that this book was named as the second most influential book in the United States (after the Christian bible) in a survey conducted jointly by the Book of the Month Club and the Library of Congress. What that says is that the leaders and thinkers of this country are adopting this code or at least considering it important, whether they agree with it or not. If you would like to be a leader or a thinker, I suggest you hop on the bandwagon.
David Batson
Trader
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
