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64 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Who Is Ayn Rand?, August 24, 2009
This review is from: Ayn Rand For Beginners (For Beginners (Steerforth Press)) (Paperback)
52 years after its publication, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, reached BestSeller status on Amazon.com, the largest bookseller in the history of mankind. Never out of print, selling at least 100,000 copies per year, this high-action, philosophical novel highlights, in action, the philosophy of one of mankind's most innovative minds. As a result, many want to know, Who Is Ayn Rand?
This short book (1 hour of reading) by Andrew Bernstein does justice to that question for anyone who is asking. He takes us on a plain-English tour of her life, her two major works, the basics of her philosophy and, best of all, he makes her ideas relevant to your daily life.
Dr. Bernstein has written and spoken extensively on Rand's Objectivist philosophy. If you want the deeper level of proof of her revolutionary ideas, I heartily recomment his Objectivism In One Lesson. If you want to see his passionate efforts to use Rand's philosophy to save the diminishing freedom in Western civilization, you can't do better than his book The Capitalist Manifesto.
Ayn Rand For Beginners is a demonstration that Bernstein is capable of writing clearly on different levels of readership and understanding, without losing any of the substance that thrills readers of Ayn Rand.
So, if you are an adult, curious about Rand, or have teenagers who can benefit from a philosophy for living life on Earth, you'll want at least one copy of this book to read yourself and to pass around.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AN EXCELLENT WAY TO START THE ADVENTURE, December 2, 2009
This review is from: Ayn Rand For Beginners (For Beginners (Steerforth Press)) (Paperback)
Common Sense - The Way Back
Since I discovered Ayn Rand in the early 1960's and have read all of her books, most several times, a can hardly be classed as a "Ayn Rand" beginner". This book was purchased with the idea of giving it to my grand children and great grand children for Christmas. Even though Ayn Rand's books have been my passion for many years, I enjoyed reading this book. For such a deep subject it is easy reading and a must read for any teenager or young adult considering or being introduced to Ayn Rand's works.
For those who disagree with the premises of Rand's works it will save the time and expense of reading the novels. For those who accept her premise, it will whet their appetite and start them on an adventure that will enhance their life.
Needless to say many of my grand children and great grand children will find this book under the tree this Christmas.
Felton Williamson, Jr.
Author of the "Common Sense books".
"Common Sense - The Way Back" and
"21st Century Common Sense"
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37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gem of a book, October 9, 2009
This review is from: Ayn Rand For Beginners (For Beginners (Steerforth Press)) (Paperback)
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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