"The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought (The Ayn Rand Library, Vol V) by Ayn Rand (1990)"

This was a very good collection of essays by Ayn Rand, with a few thrown in from Leonard Peikoff, and one by Peter Schwartz. I'm not positive, as I haven't checked, but I believe that a few of the writings compiled in this book are also in some of Rand's other non-fiction, e.g. "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal", "The Virtue of Selfishness", and "Philosophy: Who Needs It". But even though this is the case, the rest of the previously unknown, un-compiled essays are well worth the price of this book. It covers everything from Philosophy to Culture as Rand presents her view of them all and how they relate to Objectivism. Awesome book!

It is no surprise to me that I only gave one star to yet another Ayn Rand book. The mystery is why I keep subjecting myself to inferior literature and ideas. I am happy to report that I am done trying to make sense of the author's nonsensical world. But I am even happier that after reading this book, I now realize what is so off-putting about her writings.

She thinks she can base her philosophy of objectivism in the object of rationality. However, humans are not rational animals. They can strive to be rational but will always fall short. And the greater the number of humans, the less likely that rationality will prevail. Ayn Rand didn't understand human nature enough to see this glaring flaw in her inferior thinking and what made her so annoying is her projection of intelligence as she pushed her unintelligent ideas.

Ironically, it was while reading Peikoff's (Rand's lackey) essay that the nature of their philosophy became clear to me and thus its primary flaw--human nature. Rand in all her babblings was unable to effectively communicate her own ideas.

Nice collection of essays from a brilliant thinker/writer.

I wanted to get a better sense of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, which i did but a number of essays were disconnected to modern era and didn’t seem as relevant. Her take on the Libertarian movement of the 1960s/1970s was quite interesting.

lots of great essays here on all sorts of topics. great filling in the gaps for the ayn rand worldview. aside from an excellent and in depth critique of the medical profesion not much that isnt repeated elsewhere but its her voice, her philosophy, HER. for a fan it is therefore essential.
have to take off half a star for the hysterical essay by peter Schwartz. far too jumbled to even be called a floating abstraction, it is a hodgepodge of outright hostility, straw men, utilitarian reasoning, panic, nonsense, and self-contridiction. a hot mess if ever ive seen one. one single quote by ayn rand (from another book) dismantles the whole thing and throws the pieces to the wind: "when men are reasonable, freedom wins. when men are free, reason wins." An essay that is basically a polemic against freedom, therefore, has no place in a book called The Voice of Reason.
but every word in here writen by rand is great. of course. and for that i give the book 5 stars

This is available in a Kindle Edition, which I want.

Rand is as always clear cut and completely rational

This collection of essays by Ayn Rand, (author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead”) focuses much more on the application of her philosophy of Objectivism to American culture and politics, rather than the identification of the branches of Objectivism. As such, there are many lessons to be learned from seeing Rand apply the philosophy to concrete, particular instances of American culture that nearly everyone can remember and relate to, regardless of age.

Of particular interest are: her discussion of how to defend against socialized medicine; her analysis of why America "lost" the war in Vietnam; and what does and does not constitute a moral compromise in regard to accepting a scholarship that has government ties. Her analysis of these events can easily be applied to the modern equivalents of the “public option” of 2009 and the “war on terror”.

Seeing these events dissected through Rand's unique ability to see complex issues in terms of fundamentals is of value of anyone looking to understand how to better integrate the philosophy of Objectivism to their daily lives, or simply to see an analysis of America that cannot be found from any other source.

Not my favorite Rand work. Some of the essays were very interesting, but a few were frankly excruciating to read through. The second to last essay presents an interesting and fairly cogent attack on libertarianism.

I love a lot of Ayn's philosophy, but reading this kind of made me wonder how much of a paragon of human achievement the guy that wrote this thought she was. Her comments on why a woman shouldn't be president were particularly amusing. *cough* Hilary sucks! *cough*

Things Ayn Rand doesn’t understand: Plato, Kant, Christianity.

The Humanae Vitae rant could be summed up as “the right to sex without consequences”, ironic considering her successfully destroying the Brandens’ marriage, and driving her husband Frank to drink himself to death.

Other than that, a lot of spicy common-sense, applicable to generations of mollycoddled parasites and their willful enablers.