Ayn Rand 101

She’s still a best-selling author off-campus, where people are not forced to buy her books. On campus, where everything is mandatory, Ayn Rand’s novels and essays are hard to find.

Although she wrote novels that are still widely read, she is rarely taught in English courses. Similarly, although the philosophy she developed—objectivism—has many more adherents than the more esoteric modes of thought represented in colleges courses, it too, is rarely explored academically.

David Kelly, who founded the Atlas Society largely to promote Rand’s works, posits in an interview with the American Journalism Center’s Leonard Robinson that academe remains hostile territory for Randians because the lady was a strong supporter of free enterprise, which has few advocates in the faculty lounge.

Yet and still, he may have hit on another reason in this interview. Rand, he avers, was fiercely dedicated to reason and rationality—two qualities which are in shorter and shorter supply in colleges and universities with every passing year.

If you want an introduction to Rand and her work, this interview might give you one. Conversely, if you are a lifelong Randian, you might find it illuminating too.

Check it out: