Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #178985 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Synopsis
The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This is the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constitutes a major philosophic revolution. In this series of essays, she presents her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the student rebellion, and the evils of altruism.

Customer Reviews

Bringing human-rights and economics together
Ayn Rand's book is not about religious cultivism - usually the only argument that critics manage to articulate. It is about the missing ideological link between human rights (individual rights) and economics. This book should be regarded as food for thought - claiming that only a free economy can be part of a free society. This is true by definition but Rand is simply one of the few non-technical minds that put it to paper without equations. (That government intervention is restricting our wealth and personal freedom has been proven infinite times before.) Another striking feature is the non-scientific assumption about man's selfish altruism. It was only decades later that her non-scientific assumptions were actually confirmed by the major biologists of our time. It is true that many of her arguments skip scientific explanations - but she is never dangerously far off from our biological and economic understanding of humans. A must read for every open mind. A must read for those who believe in the possibility of doing good for themselves and others at the same time.

As a European - I know that 99% of all academics in Europe have never come even close to thinking about similiar ideas. That is restricitng their understanding of the US altogether...

This is as good as she gets
Reviewer Scott Ryan (SandGRyan@worldnet.att.net) gets it almost right: this volume is as good as Rand gets. And it's certainly a pleasure to read a review from someone capable of evaluating Rand critically.

Nevertheless Rand places too much weight on her own allegedly *moral* basis of capitalism. Capitalism doesn't depend on egocentrism, just on a favorable view of the pursuit of human well-being. Rand sees capitalism as something requiring the special efforts of a handful of productive geniuses, when in fact capitalism is simply what peaceful people do spontaneously in the absence of restrictive government regulation.

Anyone who wants to learn about the free market is invited to read the works of its most consistent proponents - Ludwig von Mises (especially HUMAN ACTION) and Murray Rothbard (especially MAN, ECONOMY AND STATE). Rand says nothing important in this volume of essays that isn't said better somewhere else.

Rand refers favorably to Mises (and even cites his works in the bibliography in this volume), but she never understood Mises' approach to foundational issues. Rothbard was associated with Objectivism for a while but got kicked out because his wife was a Christian (and refused to become an atheist even after Rand and her then-henchman Nathaniel Branden "proved" to her that God didn't exist). Both of these men have far better credentials as economists than Rand ever had as a "philosopher."

So I suppose Ryan is right that if you plan to read just *one* volume of Rand's nonfiction, this isn't a bad choice. But frankly, you could just skip her altogether and thereby avoid the risk of getting sucked into her mind-numbing cult.

Capitalism doesn't answer to this paranoid woman. And her self-lobotomized followers don't answer to capitalism either. Proof: the *only* items her cult has "produced" are mindless rehashes of her work and sycophantic volumes *about* her. If "Objectivism" were what it's cracked up to be, its closest adherents would be creative geniuses instead of Randroid nerds.

CAPITALISM EXPLAINED
If like me your slightly bewildered and confused with the sudden rise in the anti-capitalist movement and not quite sure what to make of it all, then look no further than "Capitalism: the unknown ideal". In less than 350 pages Ayn Rand sets out in clear English exactly what capitalism means to the ordinary person and dismantles the entire case for socialism and the anti-capitalism , I highly recommend this book!