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Ayn Rand For Beginners

(For Beginners)

Andrew Bernstein,

Owen Brozman (Illustrator)

3.79 · Rating details · 70 ratings · 11 reviews

Ayn Rand, author of the best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, is beloved by millions of readers, and equally despised by a significant number of detractors. Her novels and her revolutionary philosophy of Objectivism have acquired a world-wide following. They have also created legions of readers who are hungry for a deeper understanding of her writings.
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Paperback, 112 pages

Published August 18th 2009 by For Beginners (first published July 14th 2009)

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Dec 30, 2012 Jenny rated it liked it

Shelves: politics

This book effectively communicates Ayn Rand's ideas as it sets out to do. Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are long books, so I appreciated that this gave a trite summary, overviewed the themes in her books, and then overviewed her philosophy of Objectivism. I give it 4 stars for its clarity.

However, given that the author himself appears influenced by Rand's ideas, I thought that there lacked critical discourse about her ideas. He failed to present strong arguments against Rand's political ...more

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Aug 28, 2018 Jon rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, philosophy, politics

This short appraisal of Ayn Rand's life and works provides a decent, if somewhat one sided, introduction to her philosophy. The writer covers the details in a prose that is simple and effective but on occasions is gushingly supportive. What it lacks is a critical analysis of Objectivism to the same depth it details the philosophy. Rand is portrayed as indubitably controversial in her views but the writer never really gets into the meat of why and how Objectivism seeks to meet the claims against ...more

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Nov 19, 2019 Ray rated it it was amazing

Read it to understand Rand better now that I have done so I still Royally dislike her as a person and her political point of view and that she completely made up a name of a kind of philosophy that to me is ANYTHING but valid. I feel and think her political and economic ideas are completely invalid and do not even remotely follow and sound facts based on Real Economic science.... As the main character said in Vonnegut's book "the cats cradle" rAND IDEAS "ARE FOMA AND FOMA ARE LIES...!"

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Aug 03, 2019 Faisal Abid rated it it was amazing

Great intro to Ayn Rand and summarizes objectivism really well.

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Jul 10, 2019 Pete rated it it was ok

While reading this I got the feeling that the author was trying to convert me. An obviously biased view.

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Oct 09, 2009 Paul rated it it was amazing

Here is a simple introduction to the life and philosophy of Ayn Rand. Along with being the founder of Objectivism, she also wrote Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, two of the 20th Century’s most famous novels.

The Fountainhead takes place in the 1920s and 1930s, and is about Howard Roark, a modernist architect in a society that prefers buildings that look like Gothic cathedrals or Greek temples. He is expelled from college, gets fired from one job and loses commissions because of his absolute Here is a simple introduction to the life and philosophy of Ayn Rand. Along with being the founder of Objectivism, she also wrote Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, two of the 20th Century’s most famous novels.

The Fountainhead takes place in the 1920s and 1930s, and is about Howard Roark, a modernist architect in a society that prefers buildings that look like Gothic cathedrals or Greek temples. He is expelled from college, gets fired from one job and loses commissions because of his absolute refusal to compromise his principles. After, unwillingly, working in a quarry, because he was forced out of the architecture field, Roark designs a revolutionary apartment house in New York City. As part of a socialist plot to neutralize Roark, his revolutionary design for a religious temple is criticized as sacrilege, so Roark is branded an enemy of religion and a public enemy. Commissioned to design a government housing project, Roark’s design is changed without his knowledge or consent. Does Roark let it go ahead, or not?

In Atlas Shrugged, America is being pushed toward socialism by politicians and intellectuals; also, America’s greatest minds are literally disappearing. Where are they going?

In an isolated part of the Colorado Rockies, Dagny Taggart, railroad owner, finds America’s missing smart people. They are on strike against a moral code which says that moral goodness is found in sacrificing one’s self for others, not in finding personal happiness. Taggart also meets John Galt, inventor of an ultra-efficient motor, and leader of the strike. The state kidnaps Galt, and tortures him, in order to force him to become economic dictator of America, and to fix America’s precarious economy. Does Galt give in, or stay true to his principles?

For anyone who has read either of Rand’s books, and still don’t understand them, this is the book. For anyone who wants to know more about Objectivism, this is the book. For anyone who simply wants to know more about a famous person of the 20th Century, this is the book. It is a gem.

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Feb 10, 2017 Dana Robinson rated it it was ok

This wildly uncritical, fawning hagiography reads like a Jack Chick tract. It serves as a quick overview of Ayn Rand's novels and objectivism, but the prose is excruciating.

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Mar 22, 2014 Shirlea rated it liked it

Definately in her corner. Thought she is wonderful and we all ought to follow her thinking.

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Mar 18, 2011 Megan rated it it was amazing

Brilliant introduction to a philosophy I finally relate to..

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Apr 05, 2013 Will rated it it was ok

For the series, I expected something a bit more, ahem, objective. This one is unabashedly promoting Rand's ideas. Even more annoying, he does not discuss WE THE LIVING at ALL.

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