Customer Reviews

Rand's Anthem (Cliffs Notes)

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I have read Anthem many times and I was pleasantly surprised by this cliffsnotes summary and analysis of the book. It includes a short biography of Ayn Rand but the bulk of the book is spent on a detailed going over of Ayn Rand's plot, theme, and characters. It is fascinating to read an intelligent analysis of the characters I love. The gems of the book are the three critical essays; The Meaning and Importance of "I", The Role of Free Will in Anthem, and the Regression of a Future Collectivist Society into a Second Dark Age.

This book is written by an Objectivist author and is definately worth buying.

For a book which takes three hours or less to read, and ideas which are common pop-philosphy, Cliff's Notes for "Anthem" is a little over-kill. The essays are more difficult than the original book. The entire concept of having Cliffnotes for a book like "Anthem" is antithetical to one of the points Rand is trying to make, to think and assess for one's self.

Her thesis comes to a simple idea: it is up to the individual to think for the individual. "Anthem" is just an allegory to present the idea.

I recommend this, but barely. It can help the reader unwilling to read Rand's short book, or unable to process her basic tenets.

Anthony Trendl

I purchased this to help with book but found it not necessary. The book itself is very short and this seemed as detailed if not more so.

Folks, what is rather amusing is that the Cliff Notes for the book is nearly just as long as the actual book. That is why I love it: it provides such a nice analysis to a perfect book. If you are as much of a fan of Anthem as I am, then how can you NOT have this thought-provoking guide to go along with it? Hmm???

-Monroe Mann
Unstoppable Artists, LLC
Co-Author, "Guerrilla Networking" with Jay Levinson
Author, "Time Zen", "The Theatrical Juggernaut" and others.

I don't imagine that Cliff Notes are supposed guide students in the literary niceties of the works in question. There is nothing wrong with that: they are purchased by students as handy summaries of a book's contents.

Even within the constraints of Cliff Notes, Andrew Bernstein could have done something to help students appreciate the literary sophistication of Ayn Rand's ANTHEM. These notes are little more than a summary (with, I concede, a few useful observations) of the book and a soap box for Bernstein to tell us how great Rand and Objectivism is, even when it isn't appropriate.

Bernstein is associated with the Ayn Rand Institute (which advocates Leonard Peikoff's orthodox brand of Objectivism), which is fine with me, but he shouldn't use this book to propagandize for Rand and Objectivism. For example, when he says that Rand "helped form an institute to teach her philosophy" in 1958, was it so hard to mention that it was the Nathaniel Branden Institute?

Before Bernstein pontificates, he should at least learn what he is talking about. John Scopes wasn't jailed for teaching evolution and, according to most scholars, Bruno wasn't burned at the stake for teaching heliocentrism.