Business in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged

Younkins, Edward W.

doi:10.5325/jaynrandstud.15.2.0157

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Research Article| December 01 2015

Business in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged

Edward W. Younkins

edward w. younkins, professor, Department of Business, Wheeling Jesuit University, 316 Washington Avenue, Wheeling, West Virginia, 26003, email [email protected], is the author of numerous articles in accounting and business journals. In addition, his many free-market-oriented articles and reviews have appeared in a variety of publications. He is the author of Capitalism and Commerce: Conceptual Foundations of Free Enterprise (Lexington Books, 2002) and Champions of a Free Society: Ideas of Capitalism’s Philosophers and Economists (Lexington Books, 2008). He is the editor of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”: A Philosophical and Literary Companion (Ashgate, 2007). His newest two books are Flourishing and Happiness in a Free Society: Toward a Synthesis of Aristotelianism, Austrian Economics, and Ayn Rand’s Objectivism (University Press of America, 2011) and Exploring Capitalist Fiction: Business through Literature and Film (Lexington Books, 2014). Many of his essays can be found at http//www.quebecoislibre.org.

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The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies (2015) 15 (2): 157–184.

https://doi.org/10.5325/jaynrandstud.15.2.0157

Abstract

Atlas Shrugged is a novel about business and the people who create businesses. This article describes Ayn Rand’s treatment of business and entrepreneurs in the novel. It begins with an explanation of how Atlas Shrugged demonstrates that wealth and profit are creations of the human mind. The next section compares the worldviews of the novel’s business heroes and villains. This is followed by an in-depth analysis of the novel’s main business protagonists—Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden. The next part provides summaries of other business characters. The last section examines how the novel is used in college-level business courses.

2015

The Pennsylvania State University

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Business in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged

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