 First edition cover | |
| Author | Jeff Walker |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subjects | Objectivist movement Ayn Rand |
| Publisher | Open Court |
Publication date | 1999 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 396 |
| ISBN | 0-8126-9390-6 |
| OCLC | 39914039 |
The Ayn Rand Cult is a book by journalist Jeff Walker, published by Open Court Publishing Company in 1999. Walker discusses the history of the Objectivist movement started by novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, which he describes as a cult.
The Objectivist movement began with a small group of Rand's confidants and students who supported her philosophy of Objectivism. This group was at first known informally as "The Collective", and later gained more structure in the form of the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI), named after Rand's protege Nathaniel Branden, and a magazine that Rand and Branden co-edited. From its early days, Rand's following was sometimes criticized as a "cult" [1] or "religion". [2] Walker's book is another entry in this vein of criticism, and the first full-length book to focus entirely on the "cult" allegation. [3] [4]
Walker worked on a two-hour radio program about Rand for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The program was called Ideas: The Legacy of Ayn Rand and aired in 1992. Walker used the interviews he conducted for that program when writing his book. [5]
After Walker's introduction, the opening chapter discusses the dynamics of the movement during Rand's lifetime, including her behavior at NBI events and her relationships with her followers. The second chapter tackles directly the question of whether Objectivism is a cult, arguing that it displays elements of thought control and meets many criteria for a "destructive cult". The third chapter discusses the development of the movement since Rand's death, including the founding of the Ayn Rand Institute by Leonard Peikoff, and Peikoff's disputes with other movement figures. The fourth covers Rand's views on subjects such as art and human sexuality, and how these impacted her followers.
Three chapters focus on individuals other than Rand. The first discusses her former protege and lover, Branden. The next covers her heir, Peikoff. The last of these chapters is about the most famous member of the Collective, former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan. Walker then turns to Rand's ideas, accusing her of dogmatism, ignorance, and flawed thinking. A chapter about her "dark side" describes her as hostile and domineering.
Two chapters discuss Walker's theories about the origin of Rand's ideas. The first, "The Roots of Objectivism", discusses various influences and precursors that Walker believes contributed to Rand's ideas. The other discusses possible influences on Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged . The final chapter discusses Rand's legacy.
Kirkus Reviews says Walker is "too shrill, repetitive, and even snide", but nonetheless the book "does convey vividly the frightful mess that was Ayn Rand." [6] A reviewer for The Globe and Mail said the book is "often clumsily written", but nonetheless provides "an absorbing portrait" of the movement that offers "striking glimpses" of its participants. [7]
In a review for Liberty magazine, R.W. Bradford describes the book as overly one-sided in its hostility and accuses Walker of hyperbole, fallacies and factual errors. [8] In The Guardian , David Cohen said Walker's book "may be even more hysterical than the movement he seeks to disparage". [9]
An overview of Rand's ideas aimed at businesspeople says the book "deserves a read, if only for its unremittingly negative interpretation of every facet of its topic." [10] In a bibliographical guide to Rand's works and the literature about her, Mimi Reisel Gladstein says Walker "often depends on innuendo, rather than logic" and concludes, "There is material of interest here, but one has to pick through a lot of muck to get at it." [11]
In a review for the Objectivist magazine Full Context, Chris Matthew Sciabarra says that Walker has some "valuable insights" and "theoretical points [that] need to be grappled with", but his book "ultimately disappoints" because Walker "exhibits the characteristics of a tabloid journalist" and engages in "endless tirades, strung together in a rather disorganized fashion, amounting to a series of vitriolic ad hominems directed toward most of the major figures in Objectivism." [4]
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American writer and philosopher. She is known for her two best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. She had a play produced on Broadway in 1935 and 1936. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead. In 1957, Rand published her best-known work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays until her death in 1982.
Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian-American writer Ayn Rand. Rand first expressed Objectivism in her fiction, most notably The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957), and later in non-fiction essays and books. Leonard Peikoff, a professional philosopher and Rand's designated intellectual heir, later gave it a more formal structure. Rand described Objectivism as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute". Peikoff characterizes Objectivism as a "closed system" insofar as its "fundamental principles" were set out by Rand and are not subject to change. However, he stated that "new implications, applications and integrations can always be discovered".
Leonard Sylvan Peikoff is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is an Objectivist and was a close associate of Ayn Rand, who designated him heir to her estate after her death. He is a former professor of philosophy and host of a nationally syndicated radio talk show. He co-founded the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) in 1985 and is the author of several books on philosophy.
This is a bibliography for Ayn Rand and Objectivism. Objectivism is a philosophical system initially developed in the 20th century by Rand.
Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand is a 1991 book by the philosopher Leonard Peikoff, in which the author discusses the ideas of his mentor, Ayn Rand. Peikoff describes it as "the first comprehensive statement" of Rand's philosophy, Objectivism. The book is based on a series of lecture courses that Peikoff first gave in 1976 and that Rand publicly endorsed. Peikoff states that only Rand was qualified to write the definitive statement of her philosophic system, and that the book should be seen as an interpretation "by her best student and chosen heir." The book is volume six of the "Ayn Rand Library" series edited by Peikoff.
Chris Matthew Sciabarra is an American political theorist based in Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of three scholarly books—Marx, Hayek, and Utopia; Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical; and Total Freedom: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism—as well as several shorter works. He is also the co-editor, with Mimi Reisel Gladstein, of Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand and co-editor with Roger E. Bissell and Edward W. Younkins of The Dialectics of Liberty: Exploring the Context of Human Freedom. His work has focused on topics including Objectivism, libertarianism, and dialectics.
The Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI), originally Nathaniel Branden Lectures, was an organization founded by Nathaniel Branden in 1958 to promote Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. The institute was responsible for many Objectivist lectures and presentations across the United States. Many of those associated with NBI worked on the Objectivist magazines, The Objectivist Newsletter and The Objectivist.
The Romantic Manifesto: A Philosophy of Literature is a collection of essays regarding the nature of art by the philosopher Ayn Rand. It was first published in 1969, with a second, revised edition published in 1975.
The Objectivist movement is a movement of individuals who seek to study and advance Objectivism, the philosophy expounded by novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand. The movement began informally in the 1950s and consisted of students who were brought together by their mutual interest in Rand's novel, The Fountainhead. The group, ironically named "the Collective" due to their actual advocacy of individualism, in part consisted of Leonard Peikoff, Nathaniel Branden, Barbara Branden, Alan Greenspan, and Murray Rothbard. Nathaniel Branden, a young Canadian student who had been greatly inspired by Rand's work, became a close confidant and encouraged Rand to expand her philosophy into a formal movement. From this informal beginning in Rand's living room, the movement expanded into a collection of think tanks, academic organizations, and periodicals.
The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism is a 1964 collection of essays by the philosopher Ayn Rand and the writer Nathaniel Branden. Most of the essays originally appeared in The Objectivist Newsletter. The book covers ethical issues from the perspective of Rand's Objectivist philosophy. Some of its themes include the identification and validation of egoism as a rational code of ethics, the destructiveness of altruism, and the nature of a proper government.
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal is a collection of essays, mostly by the philosopher Ayn Rand, with additional essays by her associates Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, and Robert Hessen. The authors focus on the moral nature of laissez-faire capitalism and private property. They have a very specific definition of capitalism, a system they regard as broader than simply property rights or free enterprise. It was originally published in 1966.
Atlas Shrugged is a 1957 novel by Ayn Rand. Rand's fourth and final novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing. Atlas Shrugged includes elements of science fiction, mystery, and romance, and it contains Rand's most extensive statement of Objectivism in any of her works of fiction. The theme of Atlas Shrugged, as Rand described it, is "the role of man's mind in existence". The book explores a number of philosophical themes from which Rand would subsequently develop Objectivism. In doing so, it expresses the advocacy of reason, individualism, and capitalism, and depicts what Rand saw to be the failures of governmental coercion.
Objectivist periodicals are a variety of academic journals, magazines and newsletters with an editorial perspective explicitly based on Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Several early Objectivist periodicals were edited by Rand. She later endorsed two periodicals edited by associates, and a number of others have been founded since her death.
Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical is a 1995 book by Chris Matthew Sciabarra tracing the intellectual roots of 20th-century Russian-American novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand and the philosophy she developed, Objectivism.
The Passion of Ayn Rand is a biography of Ayn Rand by writer and lecturer Barbara Branden, a former friend and business associate. Published by Doubleday in 1986, it was the first full-length biography of Rand and the basis for the 1999 film of the same name starring Helen Mirren as Rand.
Mimi Reisel Gladstein is a professor of English and Theatre Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso. Her specialties include authors such as Ayn Rand and John Steinbeck, as well as women's studies, theatre arts and 18th-century British literature.
Journals of Ayn Rand is a book derived from the private journals of the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. Edited by David Harriman with the approval of Rand's estate, it was published in 1997, 15 years after her death. Some reviewers considered it an interesting source of information for readers with an interest in Rand, but several scholars criticized Harriman's editing as being too heavy-handed and insufficiently acknowledged in the published text.
Judgment Day: My Years with Ayn Rand is a 1989 memoir by psychologist Nathaniel Branden that focuses on his relationship with his former mentor and lover, Ayn Rand. Branden released a revised version, retitled as My Years with Ayn Rand, in 1999.
Letters of Ayn Rand is a book derived from the letters of the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. It was published in 1995, 13 years after Rand's death. It was edited by Michael Berliner with the approval of Rand's estate.
Who Is Ayn Rand? is a 1962 book about the philosopher Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden and Barbara Branden. It comprises four essays addressing Rand's life and writings and her philosophy of Objectivism. The book's title essay is Barbara Branden's authorized biography of Rand. The Brandens subsequently repudiated the book, deeming its approach too uncritical toward Rand.