Ayn Rand's best twenty-six pieces form of collection speeches, and articles. There are some short comments for her readers in the Los Angles Times, as well as her own magazines and some lectures to various audiences. These articles spans from 1961 to 1981, and also included some of her essays written after Ayn Rand's death in 1982.

Excellent work, except when she approaches Christianity. She chooses the weakest strawman concretization of it that she could find, Papal Roman Catholicism, which embodies the very essence of the "second-hander" that every ounce of her literary effort is calculated to battle.

This is the weak spot in her "closed system".

It is an example of the contradiction inherent to any mixed economy.

Other than when she is emoting against the God Who upholds her by the Word of His power, she does some superb thinking and writing. This is must read material!

Ayn Rand's construct on Objectivism is a bit ahead of her time. These essays are thought provoking and a brilliant read.

Three stars because I cannot agree with much of what Rand argues. But also three stars because, as Leonard Peikoff explains in the epilogue, Ayn Rand worked hard to be understood, down to the root.

I have to say, reading more Ayn Rand has helped me in conversation with capitalism apologists. When you understand the necessary conclusions of capitalism, you then realize that many people in the United States who claim it as their political philosophy, do not actually believe it very thoroughly.

While I think most of Ayn Rand’s moral takeaways are wrong, and in some instances, overtly immoral, I will always appreciate her courage to follow her ideas to their logical conclusions. I say this because many conservatives in the United States do not do this. If more of them were willing to read Ayn Rand, they would see the moral problems and incongruities with the ideas they claim to subscribe to.

Also, for anyone who claims that Ayn Rand was a Libertarian, this book is a must-read. She was explicitly in opposition to Libertarians, and there is an entire chapter dedicated to this. Said chapter is written Peter Schwartz, one of her intellectual heirs who serves on the board of the Ayn Rand Institute, but nonetheless, it is a clear crystallization of her thoughts.

still reading this -

kind of painful

ONCE AGAIN, MY BROTHER MADE ME READ THIS BOOK WHEN I WAS A KID. AFTER READING THIS AND ANTHEM, I TOLD HIM TO STOP TRYING TO CORRUPT ME.

Interesting essays for the most part. Faulty logic. There are a couple that are so bad though they're difficult to ignore.

If you like "pure" capitalism then you'll like Ayn Rand. This book is essentially a description of Rand's capitalistic philosophy and moral framework over a collection of essays and is worth the read even if you don't agree with her views. This book is a little repetitious which leads me to believe that if you've read Rand's other non-fiction then this is probably more of the same.

Interesting presentation of ideas in the potential of man. Scary where this could lead us though…

I can't agree with everything Ayn Rand wrote but I do agree with most of her views on objectivism, with her views about education, her dislike of cultural relativism, and her views on individual rights (though not about her views on altruism). Ayn Rand argued for the need to be objective in all situations and I can't argue against that.

It's a bit dated. She has some ideas that are still good, but some of the essays are difficult to handle 55 years after the initial publication.

Addresses how stateism influences current events, as compared to her novels, where the effects of stateism are predicted on imaginary events. Essays criticize the Catholic church, education, and she even saw into the future to give a criticism of the woke movement's tyranny of the minority.