What is Atlas Shrugged?
1.
Considered by many to be Ayn Rand's greatest work, Atlas Shrugged is a long, pro-capitalist novel in which Ayn Rand sought to portray the ideal man and his effect on society.
"If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater the effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders—what would you tell him to do?"
"I…don’t know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?"
"To shrug."
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2.
Ayn Rand's fourth and most expansive novel. The theme of Atlas Shrugged is that independent thinking, and the creativity and inventiveness that comes from this, is the motor that runs the world. In Atlas Shrugged, Rand argues that if the "men of the mind" went on strike, the motor of the world would shut down and civilization would fall apart. This book is an important acheivement for Rand, because it is the most comprehensive basis for her philosophy
"Atlas Shrugged was so awesome."
3.
A very large novel by Ayn Rand, a shallow but popular important Conservative thinker of the early to mid twentieth century. It explores many of the themes that later found their expression in Libertarian philosophy. Noteworthy for its interesting political views, paper thin characters and an awkward, implausible plot.
"Atlas Shrugged" is a book that really impresses people who haven't read much good fiction.
