Atlas Shrugged

Outline

Atlas Shrugged (1957) is a philosophical novel set in a declining United States where government control and economic restrictions increasingly burden society’s most productive individuals. As leading industrialists, inventors, and thinkers begin disappearing, railroad executive Dagny Taggart searches for the cause. Through this story, the novel examines individualism, reason, personal responsibility, free enterprise, and the consequences of suppressing ambition and innovation.

• Atlas Shrugged is a philosophical novel, first published in 1957, set in a United States in decline.
• Growing government control and economic restrictions place the heaviest burden on the most productive people in society.
• When leading industrialists, inventors and thinkers begin to disappear, railroad executive Dagny Taggart sets out to find the cause.
• The story examines individualism, reason, personal responsibility and free enterprise, and the cost of suppressing ambition and innovation.

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) was a Russian-born American novelist and philosopher best known for The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. She developed the philosophy of Objectivism, which emphasises reason, individual freedom, rational self-interest, and capitalism. Her ideas have influenced political, economic, and philosophical debates while also generating significant controversy.