Reviews
The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature , April 1, 1995
Novel by Ayn Rand, published in 1957. The book's female protagonist, Dagny Taggart, struggles to manage a transcontinental railroad amid the pressures and restrictions of massive bureaucracy. Her antagonistic reaction to a libertarian group seeking an end to government regulation is later echoed and modified in her encounter with a utopian community, Galt's Gulch, whose members regard self-determination rather than collective responsibility as the highest ideal. The novel contains the most complete presentation of Rand's personal philosophy, known as objectivism, in fictional form.
Customer Comments
A reader from Cleveland, Ohio , April 17, 1999 
An amazing book, both as a novel and a philosophy
Remember the Michael Douglas movie where GREED IS GOOD? Atlas Shrugged is a brilliant demonstration of how greed works for the good of society and how social welfare institutions can ruin a country's ability to sustain itself. The America that Rand depicts is startlingly similar to what happened to Soviet Russia under communism. When people don't get to reap the rewards of hard work or hard thinking -- then why bother to work or think hard? This is a great book. I loved it and can't stop thinking about it. A reader from Monticello, Georgia , April 15, 1999
Excellent
A must read for anyone who wonders what they're working for. caleb_black%40juno.com from Melbourne, FL , April 11, 1999
Typical Hollywood Sci-Fi Fair =-)
I think of this book as a tale of good and evil, not unlike Star Wars. In Rand's book the Jedi Knights are engineers, while the "dark siders" are those who hold power but try not to think too much. In couching her ideas in terms of a sci-fi battle of good and evil, she made her beliefs much easier for me to understand. She also made trying to understand her ideas a lot of fun. For example, she has written some fairly explicit sexaul scenes. Well, like I argue...typical Hollywood.
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