Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand's longest novel imagines a United States sliding into collapse as government control tightens and the inventors, industrialists, and creators who keep the country running quietly vanish. Dagny Taggart, who runs a transcontinental railroad, struggles to hold her business together while the men of ability go on strike against a world that punishes them. The story doubles as a vehicle for Rand's philosophy of objectivism, her case for reason, individual achievement, and unregulated capitalism, delivered in a long climactic speech. The book has been divisive since 1957 and remains a touchstone for its admirers. Ray Dalio has named it among his most-recommended titles.
What you might want to know about Atlas Shrugged
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In a near-future America where the most capable people begin to disappear, a railroad executive fights to keep the economy running and learns where they have gone.
It is a novel, but Ayn Rand uses the story to lay out her philosophy of objectivism, including a long speech near the end. Many readers come to it for the ideas as much as the plot.
It is very long, well over 1,000 pages in most editions, making it Ayn Rand's most ambitious work of fiction.
Atlas Shrugged was written by Ayn Rand, published in 1957 by Random House.
Atlas Shrugged is 1168 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Atlas Shrugged takes most readers 18 to 25 hours to finish.
Atlas Shrugged is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.