Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged Reviews

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In an age when the council and government invade ever further into all areas of peoples' lives. When it's taken for granted they will tell you how to live, what you can do, where, with whom and how often. When it feels like the financial world is falling apart at the seams, with the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer and nobody seeming happier whatever their situation, I always think of this book which is one of my favourites.

It is the magnum opus of Ayn Rand, the founder of modern objectivism and is a treatise on that philosophy. It's most famous line is 'Who is John Galt?' a questions which is still used today in protests at G20 meetings and the like though the irony of anti-capitalists using one a line from one of the most pro-capitalist books ever written seems to be lost on the protesters. It is probably one of the most popular books most have never heard of - especially in Europe where objectivism is completely at odds with the idea of a strong state.

The book is set in America in an unspecified age (the book was written in the '50s) and is set during a bad recessions. Fed up with all the government interfering when it should be staying out of trying to fix things the book looks at what happens when all of the country's most creative and productive workers get fed up and simply go on strike.

It's an interesting concept. The world is used to the workers of the world going on strike but what would happen if all the creators of those jobs simply went on strike? Whatever your political beliefs this is an important book which is all the more appropriate now we are in the middle of a deep recession and the half the plot for the book seems to be being acted out in real life.

It's not a slim book and requires some commitment but unlike most political screeds because it's in fiction form it's an easier read and even without the massive political overtones makes for a cracking good story