originally published 12/1/2009

Jennifer Burns discusses the life and legacy of Ayn Rand, “goddess of the market” and entrenched enemy of altruism. In her biography, Burns examines the early life of Ayn Rand, born Alisa Rosenbaum, in Russia before the Revolution. She traces Rand’s life through her family’s experiences during the Russian Revolution and her later immigration to the United States, a place that in Rand’s imagination was filled with glamour, wealth, and beauty. She became jaded by the American intellectual elite’s friendliness and acceptance of socialism and communism in the late 1920s and 30s, but grew to believe the wider American population had the right views concerning freedom and economics and sought to make herself a literary champion of capitalist freedom for “their side.” Burns describes how Ayn Rand’s relationships mirrored her system of ethics as well; she thought the only valuable relationships were those completely freely chosen, eschewing non-voluntary ties and resting relations on individual perceptions of value devoid of emotional considerations. Such beliefs as well as her atheism had a polarizing effect on conservatives around her; Burns discusses how her person and/or work were received by various figures of conservatism over time — figures including Whittaker Chambers, Friedrich Hayek, and Murray Rothbard — as well as their personal interactions. Finally, Burns comments on her intellectual and imaginative influences including Nietzsche and cinema, both of which, from an early age, she was greatly impressed by. Burns is the author of Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (Oxford, 2009). This feature was originally published on Volume 100 of the Journal.

17 minutes

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