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Ayn Rand (1905–1982), the Russian-born American writer and philosopher best known for her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, has influenced politics and popular culture, despite a lack of acceptance for her work in academic circles.
With over 37 million copies sold as of 2020[update], Rand's books continue to be read widely.[1][a] A survey conducted for the
Library of Congress and the
Book-of-the-Month Club in 1991 asked club members to name the most influential book in their lives. Rand's Atlas Shrugged was the second most popular choice, after the Bible.[3] Although Rand's influence has been greatest in the United States, there has been international interest in her work.[4][5]
Rand's works, most commonly Anthem or The Fountainhead, are sometimes assigned as secondary school reading.[6] Since 2002, the Ayn Rand Institute has provided free copies of Rand's novels to teachers who promise to include the books in their curriculum.[7] The Institute had distributed 4.5 million copies in the U.S. and Canada by the end of 2020.[2] In 2017, Rand was added to the required reading list for the
A Level Politics exam in the United Kingdom.[8]
Although she rejected the labels "conservative" and "libertarian",[37][38] Rand has had a continuing influence on
right-wing politics and libertarianism.[39][40] Historian Jennifer Burns referred to her as "the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right".[39]
Other political figures who cite Rand as an influence are usually conservatives (often members of the Republican Party),[49] despite Rand taking some atypical positions for a conservative, like being
pro-choice and an atheist.[50] She faced intense opposition from
William F. Buckley Jr. and other contributors to the conservative National Review magazine, which published numerous criticisms of her writings and ideas.[51] Nevertheless, a 1987 article in The New York Times referred to her as the
Reagan administration's "novelist laureate".[52] Republican
congressmen and conservative pundits have acknowledged her influence on their lives and have recommended her novels.[53][54][55] She has influenced some conservative politicians outside the U.S., such as
Malcom Fraser in Australia,[56]Sajid Javid in the United Kingdom,
Siv Jensen in Norway, and
Ayelet Shaked in Israel.[57][58]
A protester's sign at a 2009 Tea Party rally refers to John Galt, the hero of Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
The
financial crisis of 2007–2008 spurred renewed interest in her works, especially Atlas Shrugged, which some saw as foreshadowing the crisis.[59][60] Opinion articles compared real-world events with the novel's plot.[49][61] Signs mentioning Rand and her fictional hero John Galt appeared at
Tea Party protests.[60] There was increased criticism of her ideas, especially from the
political left. Critics blamed the economic crisis on her support of
selfishness and
free markets, particularly through her influence on Alan Greenspan.[55] In 2015, Adam Weiner said that through Greenspan, "Rand had effectively chucked a ticking time bomb into the boiler room of the US economy".[62]Lisa Duggan said that Rand's novels had "incalculable impact" in encouraging the spread of
neoliberal political ideas.[63] In 2021,
Cass Sunstein said Rand's ideas could be seen in the tax and regulatory policies of the
Trump administration, which he attributed to the "enduring influence" of Rand's fiction.[64]
Objectivist movement
Rand's heir
Leonard Peikoff co-founded the Ayn Rand Institute.
After the closure of the Nathaniel Branden Institute, the Objectivist movement continued in other forms. In the 1970s, Peikoff began delivering courses on Objectivism.[65] In 1979,
Peter Schwartz started a newsletter called The Intellectual Activist, which Rand endorsed.[66][67] She also endorsed The Objectivist Forum, a bimonthly magazine founded by Objectivist philosopher
Harry Binswanger, which ran from 1980 to 1987.[68]
In 1985, Peikoff worked with businessman Ed Snider to establish the
Ayn Rand Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Rand's ideas and works. In 1990, after an ideological disagreement with Peikoff, David Kelley founded the Institute for Objectivist Studies, now known as
The Atlas Society.[69][70] In 2001, historian John McCaskey organized the Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship, which provides grants for scholarly work on Objectivism in academia.[71]
Tara Smith[98] (1961– ), a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. Her works include Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist, and she is on the board of directors of the
Ayn Rand Institute.
Selvaraghavan Kasthuri Raja[108] (1975– ), an Indian film director, producer, script writer, screenwriter and lyricist who works mostly in
Tamil language and Telugu language films.
Murnane, Ben (2018). Ayn Rand and the Posthuman: The Mind-Made Future. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN978-3-319-90853-3.
Offord, Derek (2022). Ayn Rand and the Russian Intelligentsia: The Origins of an Icon of the American Right. Russian Shorts (Kindle ed.). London:
Bloomsbury Academic.
ISBN978-1-3502-8393-0.
Riggenbach, Jeff (Fall 2004). "Ayn Rand's Influence on American Popular Fiction". The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. 6 (1): 91–144.
JSTOR41560271.
Weiner, Adam (2020) [2016]. How Bad Writing Destroyed the World: Ayn Rand and the Literary Origins of the Financial Crisis (Kindle ed.). London: Bloomsbury Academic.
ISBN978-1-5013-1314-1.
Merrill, Ronald E. (2013). Ayn Rand Explained: From Tyranny to Tea Party. Revised and updated by Marsha Familaro Enright. Chicago: Open Court.
ISBN978-0-8126-9798-8.