Review of Edward Younkins, Exploring Atlas Shrugged: Ayn Rand’s Magnum Opus
Excerpt: As the book is a collection of standalone essays, it suffers a little from repetition; more than once, readers will ask “Haven’t I already read this?” and realize they’re reading a repetition of something that was in an earlier chapter. This space might have been used better going deeper into some of the issues the book raises. Dr. Younkins runs an institute at a Jesuit university, and I would have loved to see an exploration of the tensions between Rand’s ideas and the Jesuit tradition. I think Rand is far too dismissive of religion, but the devout are too dismissive of Rand (John Piper is an important exception)–or of individualism and capitalism. One of my “favorite” characters in Atlas Shrugged is Eugene Lawson, “the banker with a heart,” who gave no thought to profitability, bankrupted his community with his good intentions, and blamed everyone else for falling short of his lofty ideal. Younkins discusses Lawson’s folly on page 100, but I think there is a lot that remains to be said about his (ig)noble experiment and how it fits in with different ethical traditions–or doesn’t. I’m drawn to Atlas Shrugged as an economist and a Christian because it is such a piercing explanation of how much ideas matter and how much intentions don’t. [Art Carden, the writer of this book review, is an economist who dabbles in writing, not a writer who dabbles in economics. In my personal opinion, Anthem was Rand's best--but, least detailed--novel, and it was difficult for her to find a publisher for it. Ron P.]
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