Product Description

"The Ideas of Ayn Rand" tells of Ayn Rand (1905-1982), who is best-known for her blockbuster novels, "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged". In the 1960s her "Objectivist" ideas, featuring laissez-faire capitalism, atheism, "the virtue of selfishness", and aesthetic romanticism, were promoted in an organized movement, which split apart following Rand's falling-out with protege Nathaniel Branden. Despite this debacle, she continues to attract readers and to exert a major, if largely subterranean, influence on thinking and policy. Recent works on Rand have focussed on the details of her biography: her struggle as a refugee from Soviet Russia to become a literary success in the US, her career as a Hollywood screen writer, and her tortured private life. "The Ideas of Ayn Rand" offers an examination of the development of Rand's thought, with the events of her life presented as necessary background. Dr Merrill's standpoint is neither hostile nor uncritical. He gives a detailed analysis of all Rand's important fiction works, illustrating the development of her writing technique. He demonstrates the influence of Nietzsche upon Rand's early thought, and her subsequent, not entirely candid attempts to deny that influence. The author aims to give a fresh interpretation of Rand's views on metaphysics and ethics, and a critical account of her political activities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1839275 in Books
• Published on: 1991-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 191 pages

Customer Reviews

Nice book
This is a nice work in independent commentary and interpretation, something Peikovians cannot stand. And yes, the book has useful commentary.

Disappointingly superficial.
Given the publisher of this book, I had hoped to find a systematic presentation and evaluation of Ayn Rand's ideas. Unfortunately, both the presentation and evaluation were superficial. The author failed to motivate Rand's ideas by a central theme, and his evalutions were ad hoc and disintegrated.

The book's strongest potential virtue was to delineate Nietzsche's influence on Rand's philosophy. Yet while the author claims that Rand's writings were influenced by Nietzsche, he provides little documentation for any early influence and no evidence for any lasting influence. His claim that Rand derived her critique of Kant from Nietzsche, for example, was never documented. A substantial revision of this section of the book, particularly in light of recent publications, would be warranted--without such a revision, the book has little to recommend it.

Finally, the author's narration of recent scholarly interest in Rand--both inside and outside academia--was also disappo! intingly superficial. His treatment was marred by his conflation of these intellectual developments with much non-scholarly (and uninformative) interest in her personal life and the lives of her self-proclaimed admirers.

With the publication of "Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand," "Letters of Ayn Rand," and "Journals of Ayn Rand," the current volume has been entirely superceded. Save your money.