Atlas Shrugged
Rand's magnum opus
Atlas Shrugged is a 1957 novel by Ayn Rand, her longest and most influential work.
The title imagines the mythological Atlas, who holds up the world, finally refusing to bear the burden.
The novel depicts industrialists and innovators withdrawing from a society that exploits them.
It became a touchstone for libertarian and free-market thought: He treats Atlas Shrugged like a bible.
Critics find it preachy; admirers find it prophetic.
- Ayn RandObjectivist movement founder
- capitalismPrivate profit-based economy
- laissez-faireNoninterference in commerce
- dystopiaImaginary terrible society
- ideologyStructured belief framework
libertarianism · individualism · industrialism · philosophy · The Fountainhead · free will · locomotive · freedom · creative vision · heroism · free enterprise · captains of industry · prime mover · economic freedom · literary influence · self-reliance · natural rights · personal responsibility
- 1950s literatureLord of the Flies, Lolita, On the Road, East of Eden, Charlotte's Web
- American BooksTo Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, Catch-22, Walden
- Long NovelsWar and Peace, Les Miserables, Don Quixote, Clarissa, The Stand
- Ayn RandAyn Rand, The Fountainhead, John Galt, Rand, looters
- Great BooksMeditations, Leviathan, The Prince, Utopia, Walden
- allegoryAnimal Farm, Narnia, The Little Prince, religious allegory, political allegory
Atlas ShruggedThe Communist Manifesto
Socialist political program document
Das Kapital · The Jungle · 1984 · Mother · Brave New World
Atlas ShruggedHemingway
minimalism · subtlety · restraint · haiku · The Great Gatsby
Atlas Shruggedaltruism
Prioritizing others' wellbeing
self-sacrifice · Les Misérables · A Christmas Carol · The Brothers Karamazov · liberation theology