The Ayn Rand Column

The Ayn Rand Column: A collection of her weekly newspaper articles, written for the Los Angeles Times, with additional little-known essays by Ayn Rand. (Peter Schwartz, editor)

In 1962 Ayn Rand accepted an invitation to write a weekly column in the Los Angeles Times, and from events and controversies that have by now faded from the news, she was able to draw timeless lessons. Commenting on the Cuban Missile Crisis, for example, she identified the inevitable consequences of President Kennedy’s appeasement—at home and abroad. About the Algerian civil war, she observed: “A majority without an ideology is a helpless mob, to be taken over by anyone.” And about socialistic policies espoused by liberals and conservatives, she noted that “no one’s welfare can be achieved by anyone’s sacrifice.”

The 26 columns range widely in topic—from a celebration of Victor Hugo’s novel Ninety-three and Britain’s entry into the (European) Common Market to the causes of war and peace.

Unlike so much “journalistic commentary—which is stale and irrelevant just days, or hours after it is written—virtually nothing of hers becomes outdated,” explains the editor’s introduction. “Her perspective is that of a grand historian whose time frame is the centuries and whose function is to explain the world by reference to universal truths.”

Table of contents

• Introduction by Peter Schwartz
• The Ayn Rand Column
  • Introducing Objectivism
  • War and Peace
  • Progress or Sacrifice
  • The New Enemies of “The Untouchables”
  • An Intellectual Coup d’État
  • “The Cold Civil War”
  • Government by Intimidation
  • Let Us Alone!
  • Just Suppose
  • Through Your Most Grievous Fault
  • An Open Letter to My Readers
  • Mickey Spillane
  • “The Dying Victim of Berlin”
  • Ninety-Three
  • Blind Chaos
  • The Man-Haters
  • The Season of Platitudes
  • Our Alleged Competitor
  • Britain’s “National Socialism”
  • Nationalism vs. Internationalism
  • The Cuban Crisis
  • Post-Mortem, 1962
  • How to Demoralize a Nation
  • Freedom of Speech
  • The Munich of World War III?
  • Vandalism
• Other Writings
  • The Only Path to Tomorrow
  • The First Amendment and “Symbolic Speech”
  • The Secular Meaning of Christmas
  • Favorite Writers
  • Questions and Answers on Anthem
  • Why I Like Stamp Collecting
• Index

(Softcover; 129 pages)

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