
Myths about Ayn Rand
Popular Errors and the Insights They Conceal
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $3.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Scott R. Smith
About this listen
Since the 2008 recession began, sales of Atlas Shrugged have surged and the novel (and author Ayn Rand) have landed at the center of American politics, including presidential campaigns. Thousands of articles have been written about Ayn Rand's ideas. A firestorm of criticism has followed. How is one to make sense of all the competing claims about Rand's ideas? What did Ayn Rand believe? Was she a prophetic visionary who sounded a warning bell about creeping socialism and the financial disaster that would follow in its wake? Did she define what is quintessentially American - individualism, self-authorship, achievement, and freedom? Or was she the lowest of the low, a fawning and vapid worshipper of wealthy persons and unbridled power? If someone asked you to explain Rand's basic ideas, could you? This illuminating book reveals the "clockwork" behind many critics' misunderstandings and distortions of her ideas and provides simple and straightforward explanations of prominent "myths" about Ayn Rand.
Whether you decide to embrace Ayn Rand's ideas, reject them, or simply want to be able to participate in an informed way in conversations about Rand's ideas, this slim volume will help you understand her revolutionary philosophy and identify the myths circulating about her ideas. In these essays, four authors identify some prominent myths, show why they are false, and state the plain facts that the myths conceal.
©2014 The Atlas Society (P)2016 The Atlas SocietyListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Virtue of Selfishness
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: C. M. Hernert
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ayn Rand here sets forth the moral principles of Objectivism, the philosophy that holds human life - the life proper to a rational being - as the standard of moral values and regards altruism as incompatible with human nature, with the creative requirement of survival, and with a free society.
-
-
Beyond brilliant
- By R. Aiken on 10-29-03
By: Ayn Rand
-
Atlas Shrugged
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 62 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a scrap heap within an abandoned factory, the greatest invention in history lies dormant and unused. By what fatal error of judgment has its value gone unrecognized, its brilliant inventor punished rather than rewarded for his efforts? In defense of those greatest of human qualities that have made civilization possible, one man sets out to show what would happen to the world if all the heroes of innovation and industry went on strike.
-
-
Hurt version decidedly superior
- By Mica on 03-24-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Fountainhead
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 32 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the 20th century's most challenging novels of ideas, The Fountainhead champions the cause of individualism through the story of a gifted young architect who defies the tyranny of conventional public opinion. The struggle for personal integrity in a world that values conformity above creativity is powerfully illustrated through three characters: Howard Roarke, a genius; Gail Wynand, a newspaper mogul and self-made millionaire; and Dominique Francon, a devastating beauty.
-
-
The Fountainhead
- By Zachary on 06-04-10
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Romantic Manifesto
- A Philosophy of Literature
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this beautifully written and brilliantly reasoned collection of essays, Ayn Rand throws new light on the nature of art and its purpose in human life. Once again, she demonstrates her bold originality and her refusal to let conventional ideas define her sense of the truth. Rand eloquently asserts that one cannot create art without infusing it with one's own value judgments and personal philosophy - even an attempt to withhold moral overtones only results in a deterministic or naturalistic message.
-
-
Essential AYN
- By Mica on 07-15-08
By: Ayn Rand
-
Objectivism
- The Philosophy of Ayn Rand
- By: Leonard Peikoff
- Narrated by: Johanna Ward
- Length: 19 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This brilliantly conceived book is based on a lecture course given by Dr. Leonard Peikoff in 1976 entitled, "The Philosophy of Objectivism". The lectures were attended by Ayn Rand, who helped prepare them and who also joined Peikoff in answering questions.
-
-
The very best overview of Objectivism
- By L. Hattery on 06-24-05
By: Leonard Peikoff
-
Explaining Postmodernism (Expanded Edition)
- Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault
- By: Stephen R. C. Hicks
- Narrated by: Scott R. Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Explaining Postmodernism is intellectual history with a polemical twist, providing fresh insights into the debates underlying the furor over political correctness, multiculturalism, and the future of liberal democracy.
-
-
Does not actually explain postmodernism.
- By Daniel Schealler on 02-04-19
-
The Virtue of Selfishness
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: C. M. Hernert
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ayn Rand here sets forth the moral principles of Objectivism, the philosophy that holds human life - the life proper to a rational being - as the standard of moral values and regards altruism as incompatible with human nature, with the creative requirement of survival, and with a free society.
-
-
Beyond brilliant
- By R. Aiken on 10-29-03
By: Ayn Rand
-
Atlas Shrugged
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 62 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a scrap heap within an abandoned factory, the greatest invention in history lies dormant and unused. By what fatal error of judgment has its value gone unrecognized, its brilliant inventor punished rather than rewarded for his efforts? In defense of those greatest of human qualities that have made civilization possible, one man sets out to show what would happen to the world if all the heroes of innovation and industry went on strike.
-
-
Hurt version decidedly superior
- By Mica on 03-24-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Fountainhead
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 32 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the 20th century's most challenging novels of ideas, The Fountainhead champions the cause of individualism through the story of a gifted young architect who defies the tyranny of conventional public opinion. The struggle for personal integrity in a world that values conformity above creativity is powerfully illustrated through three characters: Howard Roarke, a genius; Gail Wynand, a newspaper mogul and self-made millionaire; and Dominique Francon, a devastating beauty.
-
-
The Fountainhead
- By Zachary on 06-04-10
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Romantic Manifesto
- A Philosophy of Literature
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this beautifully written and brilliantly reasoned collection of essays, Ayn Rand throws new light on the nature of art and its purpose in human life. Once again, she demonstrates her bold originality and her refusal to let conventional ideas define her sense of the truth. Rand eloquently asserts that one cannot create art without infusing it with one's own value judgments and personal philosophy - even an attempt to withhold moral overtones only results in a deterministic or naturalistic message.
-
-
Essential AYN
- By Mica on 07-15-08
By: Ayn Rand
-
Objectivism
- The Philosophy of Ayn Rand
- By: Leonard Peikoff
- Narrated by: Johanna Ward
- Length: 19 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This brilliantly conceived book is based on a lecture course given by Dr. Leonard Peikoff in 1976 entitled, "The Philosophy of Objectivism". The lectures were attended by Ayn Rand, who helped prepare them and who also joined Peikoff in answering questions.
-
-
The very best overview of Objectivism
- By L. Hattery on 06-24-05
By: Leonard Peikoff
-
Explaining Postmodernism (Expanded Edition)
- Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault
- By: Stephen R. C. Hicks
- Narrated by: Scott R. Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Explaining Postmodernism is intellectual history with a polemical twist, providing fresh insights into the debates underlying the furor over political correctness, multiculturalism, and the future of liberal democracy.
-
-
Does not actually explain postmodernism.
- By Daniel Schealler on 02-04-19
-
The Right Side of History
- How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great
- By: Ben Shapiro
- Narrated by: Ben Shapiro
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America has a God-shaped hole in its heart, argues New York Times best-selling author Ben Shapiro, and we shouldn't fill it with politics and hate.
-
-
As an atheist
- By Benjamin on 03-27-19
By: Ben Shapiro
-
Justice
- By: Michael J. Sandel
- Narrated by: Michael J. Sandel
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What are our obligations to others as people in a free society? Should government tax the rich to help the poor? Is the free market fair? Is it sometimes wrong to tell the truth? Do individual rights and the common good conflict? These questions are at the core of our public life today - and at the heart of Justice, in which Michael J. Sandel shows how a surer grasp of philosophy can help us to make sense of politics, morality, and our own convictions as well.
-
-
A very worthwhile book
- By Amazon Customer on 11-11-09
-
The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy
- By: Christopher Lasch
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this challenging work, Christopher Lasch makes an accessible critique of what is wrong with the values and beliefs of America's professional and managerial elites. The distinguished historian argues that democracy today is threatened not by the masses, as Jose Ortega y Gasset ( The Revolt of the Masses) had said, but by the elites. These elites - mobile and increasingly global in outlook - refuse to accept limits or ties to nation and place.
-
-
The last twenty years proves the author right
- By Del Lewis-Chia on 08-08-20
-
Rediscovering Americanism
- And the Tyranny of Progressivism
- By: Mark R. Levin
- Narrated by: Jeremy Lowell, Mark R. Levin
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Rediscovering Americanism, Mark R. Levin revisits the founders' warnings about the perils of overreach by the federal government and concludes that the men who created our country would be outraged and disappointed to see where we've ended up. Levin returns to the impassioned question he's explored in each of his best-selling books: How do we save our exceptional country? Because our values are in such a precarious state, he argues that a restoration to the essential truths on which our country was founded has never been more urgent.
-
-
More scholarly than I expected
- By Wayne on 06-29-17
By: Mark R. Levin
-
Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts That Support It
- By: Craig Biddle
- Narrated by: Chris Abell
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loving Life demonstrates that morality is not a matter of divine revelation nor social convention nor personal opinion but a matter of the factual requirements of human life and personal happiness. Biddle shows how a true morality is derived logically from observable facts, what in essence such a morality demands, and why it is a matter of pure self-interest.
-
-
A guide book to a great life.
- By DarnestownMom on 07-27-19
By: Craig Biddle
-
Philosophers
- Classical and Modern Critical Thinkers with Steady Morals
- By: Nelly Vortex
- Narrated by: Ric Chetter
- Length: 3 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this audiobook on philosophers, several fascinating thinkers will be covered. Their inspiring and debatable thoughts will give you new insights in life and death and in ethics and morals. First, the political philosophers John Locke will be explored. Mr. Locke was the libertarian who said something when things appeared to go in the wrong direction.
-
-
Very good
- By Anonymous User on 05-06-20
By: Nelly Vortex
-
How to Be a Conservative
- By: Roger Scruton
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Roger Scruton’s How to be a Conservative presents the case for modern conservatism not in the terms of an elegy but rather as a practical example of how to live as a conservative despite the pressures to live otherwise. As he writes, the book ‘is not about what we have lost, but about what we have retained, and how to hold on to it’. In this witty and frank account, Scruton draws on his years of experience as a counter-cultural presence in public life.
By: Roger Scruton
-
Capitalism
- The Unknown Ideal
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This was the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constituted a major philosophic revolution. In this series of essays, she presented her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.
-
-
Ashame this is not taught in our
- By Karen on 08-18-07
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Closing of the American Mind
- By: Allan Bloom
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In one of the most important books of our time, Allan Bloom, a professor of social thought at the University of Chicago and a noted translator of Plato and Rousseau, argues that the social and political crisis of 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis.
-
-
VERY IMPORTANT WORK!
- By Douglas on 06-29-10
By: Allan Bloom
-
The Voice of Reason
- Essays in Objectivist Thought
- By: Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the years between her first public lecture in 1961 and her last in 1981, Ayn Rand spoke and wrote about topics as different as education, medicine, Vietnam, and the death of Marilyn Monroe. In The Voice of Reason, these pieces are gathered together in book form for the first time. Written in the last decades of Rand's life, they reflect a life lived on principle, a probing mind, and a passionate intensity. With them are five essays by Leonard Peikoff, Rand's longtime associate and literary executor.
-
-
Explains Everything Of Today
- By L. Nicholson on 11-20-15
By: Ayn Rand, and others
-
Philosophy
- Who Needs It
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who needs philosophy? Ayn Rand's answer: Everyone. This collection of essays was the last work planned by Ayn Rand before her death in 1982. In it, she summarizes her view of philosophy and deals with a broad spectrum of topics. According to Ayn Rand, the choice we make is not whether to have a philosophy, but which one to have: a rational, conscious, and therefore practical one, or a contradictory, unidentified, and ultimately lethal one.
-
-
Deep and provocative
- By Sierra Bravo on 05-21-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
Ayn Rand Answers
- The Best of Her Q & A
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the publication of Atlas Shrugged in 1957, Ayn Rand occasionally lectured in order to bring her philosophy of Objectivism to a wider audience and apply it to current cultural and political issues. These taped lectures and the question-and-answer sessions that followed added not only an eloquent new dimension to Ayn Rand's ideas and beliefs, but a fresh and spontaneous insight into Ayn Rand herself.
-
-
It sounds like Ayn Rand
- By Anonymous User on 06-09-18
By: Ayn Rand
What listeners say about Myths about Ayn Rand
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Zuburger
- 05-04-17
A must-listen for Rand fans
This quick, inexpensive listen is great, especially if you have already crushed Atlas Shrugged and/or the Fountainhead. Arm yourselves!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful