John Galt in Europe: The Reception of Ayn Rand in Europe and Her Influence on European Political Thought
Type
habilitation project
Start Date
September 1, 2010
End Date
October 30, 2013
Status
ongoing
Keywords
Ayn Rand
Objectivism
Libertarianism
Liberalism
Capitalism
Description
Ayn Rand (1905-1982), who was born in Russia as Alisa Rosenbaum, was already during her lifetime one of the best known novelists and intellectuals in the United States. Her popularity persists to date thanks to her novels' mixture of fast paced, yet romantic writing style and the propagation of indivi-dualism and laissez-faire capitalism. The opening phrase "Who is John Galt?" of her greatest literary success, Atlas Shrugged (1957), has likewise become a commonly known phrase. In her opus magnum and her non-fictional tracts, Rand developed her own philosophy, to become known as Objectivism. Inspired by Aristotelian thought, Objectivism maintains that a reality independent of an individual's perception does exist, and that the individual can experience and understand this reality thanks to his or her sensory organs and reason. These premises are then combined with Rand's stark individualism and libertarian ideas.
While Objectivist organizations do exist in Europe, they have received little attention compared to their American counterparts, and Rand's life and oeuvre is generally less well known in Europe than in the United States. The reasons for these different degrees of perception are just as unknown as the overall reception history of Rand's works in Europe. This project aims to close this gap, by retracing the European reception history of Ayn Rand and by detangling her intellectual links to Europe, meaning both European influences on her thought and her influences on European thinkers. In the course of this study, the links of Rand to the Austrian School of Economics shall be explored and a first history of the European Objectivist movement is to be written. The results of this study shall contribute to a better understanding of an aspect of America's intellectual history and its political culture that is widely unknown in Europe, but has likewise left its traces here.
While Objectivist organizations do exist in Europe, they have received little attention compared to their American counterparts, and Rand's life and oeuvre is generally less well known in Europe than in the United States. The reasons for these different degrees of perception are just as unknown as the overall reception history of Rand's works in Europe. This project aims to close this gap, by retracing the European reception history of Ayn Rand and by detangling her intellectual links to Europe, meaning both European influences on her thought and her influences on European thinkers. In the course of this study, the links of Rand to the Austrian School of Economics shall be explored and a first history of the European Objectivist movement is to be written. The results of this study shall contribute to a better understanding of an aspect of America's intellectual history and its political culture that is widely unknown in Europe, but has likewise left its traces here.
Leader contributor(s)
Funder
Topic(s)
Ayn Rand
Objectivism
Libertarianism
Liberalism
Capitalism
Method(s)
archive research
textual analysis
interviews
Range
School
Range (De)
School
Eprints ID
63669
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Item type:Publication, "Nearly Perfect in Its Immorality"?-Ayn Rand and Business Ethics(2014-11-22)In the wake of the economic crisis and with the rise of the Tea Party Movement in the United States, Ayn Rand's (1905-1982) novels have been (re-)discovered by a large readership. Advocating a stark individualism and laissez-faire capitalism, Rand's opus magnum Atlas Shrugged (1957) resonates with many Americans' fears that their country may resemble more and more the dystopian world shown in the novel. Her work has likewise captured the imagination of entrepreneurs and managers like Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia.org) and John Allison (formerly with BB&T) who describe her ideas as a source of inspiration and guidance. It is thus hardly surprising that the implications of Rand's legacy likewise concern scholars in management studies. But what does Rand actually teach these managers and other readers? What are the ethical implications of her work, for the business world and beyond? Does Gore Vidal's verdict hold that Rand's school of thought is "nearly perfect in its immorality"?Type:presentation - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Rand, Ayn(Charles Scribner's Sons, 2016); - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
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Item type:Publication, The Allure of Anna Granite or Mirroring Ayn Rand's Persuasive PowerTo the respondents of a survey by the Library of Congress in 1991, she is the author of the most influential book, second only to the Bible; to many conservatives, libertarians and Tea Party adherents, she was what historian Jennifer Burns dubbed "a gateway drug to life on the right"; to many scholars, she was simply the author of bad novels who paraded as a philosopher but did not get involved in the academic discourse; and to "The New Republic," she is just one of the most overrated intellectuals: Ayn Rand (1914-1982), repeatedly believed to be no longer relevant, polarized during her lifetime and still does so today. Many wonder, not least in the Western European press, how she could achieve such iconic status in spite of the literary qualities of her work and her difficult personality. This paper tries to grasp what made Ayn Rand such a compelling figure and her ideas so pertinent to many. To this end, it approaches Rand and her philosophy through novels and other works of fiction that are either inspired by Ayn Rand or feature her as a character. It will thus show how this libertarian intellectual is re-imagined in novels like Tobias Wolff's "Old School" (2003) or Mary Gaitskill's "Two Girls, Fat and Thin" (1991), and how these novelists try to put their finger on what made Rand so convincing. In a similar fashion, the paper will discuss how recasting Rand's political ideas in science fiction, for instance in Nancy Kress's "Beggars in Spain" (1991), reveals both the allure and the danger of Rand's world of ideas.Type:conference paper - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, "A Is A": Spider-Man, Ayn Rand, and What Man Ought to BeIn 1979, writer Tom DeFalco was paired with artist and cocreator of Spider-Man, Steve Ditko, to work on an issue of Machine Man, one of the many superheroes populating the universe of Marvel Comics. Instead of the usual introduction and business chatter, Ditko challenged DeFalco during a first conversation: "Are you Tom? What gives you the right to write about heroes?" (Tucker 2012). By the time of this exchange, Ditko had not only (co-) created and continued numerous superhero stories, ranging from Captain Atom to Dr. Strange or the Hulk, but he had also dedicated a lot of thought to the question as to what composed true heroism. In the 1960s, he had already found answers in a place not uncommon for that time, namely, in the novels of a Russian immigrant whose work should serve, in her own words, as "the projection of an ideal man" (Rand 1943, ix; 1975, 162; 2005, 230): Ayn Rand (1905-1982).Type:journal articleJournal:PS: Political Science & PoliticsVolume:47Issue:1Scopus© Citations 5 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Batman Shrugged: Ayn Rand's Influence on Comic SuperheroesIn 2009, The Economist noted that "Atlas felt a sense of déjà vu": in the wake of the economic crisis and the market interventions by the US government, the novels by Ayn Rand (1905-1982) experienced an actual renaissance and would keep making news thanks to the Tea Party movement as well as due to high-profile US politicians like Paul Ryan, who had to explain the extent of Rand's influence on them. Once again, Americans discussed the appeal of novels like The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957), and how a Russian immigrant could become "the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right," as historian Jennifer Burns put it. While most people are aware of Rand's political impact, her legacy in American culture-low and high brow-is less frequently commented on, even though it is the one arena in which she has been a constant source of inspiration. From Mary Gaitskill's novel Two Girls, Fat and Thin to the "Ayn Rand School for Tots" featured in The Simpsons, Rand's work and persona have been satirized, ridiculed, celebrated, and perpetuated in different forms and contexts. Her presence is, however, most markedly felt in one particular form of "low brow art," namely in the superhero comic book genre, as I discuss in a recent article. - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
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Item type:Publication, Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics by Daniel Stedman JonesType:book reviewJournal:Political Studies ReviewVolume:12Issue:1 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, "Keep It in a Gray Fog" : Ayn Rand's Contentious Relationship with EuropeThe novels and political ideas of Ayn Rand (1905-1982) have recently experienced a renaissance, also thanks to the Tea Party movement. While Rand is widely read across the United States, she is practically unknown in Europe, where she was born. In spite of her Russian roots, childhood travels around Europe and her delight in European art and literature, Rand distanced herself from Europe and instead celebrated the United States as the only free country, superior to the ossified old continent. In her most influential novel, Atlas Shrugged, Europe is kept, as she explained it in her journal, “in a gray fog.” This paper will show that this disdain for Europe developed gradually and mirrored Rand’s own dream of what has been termed the least European experience, the frontier. In a first step, the paper retraces how and explains why, in Ayn Rand’s writings, Europe turned from a land of hope to a place of no consequence. This is followed by an analysis of Rand’s paradoxical appraisal of American and European art, which runs counter to her overall esteem for the two cultures. Although she sees in America the only country with a system conducive to innovation, she favored innovative art from Europe, a fact particularly noteworthy in light of Objectivist theory that taste was based on reason. The paper finally discusses how Rand replicates the frontier experience in her novels: the initial dream of flight across national borders developed into pioneer aspirations of settling far from the constraints of civilization.Type:conference paper
