Books Sorted by Date

No rational observer will deny the role of religion in history.  Ayn Rand herself argued that ideas serve as the engine that moves history.  The core ideas of religion -- supernaturalism, mysticism, self-sacrifice, tribalism -- have influenced human action since man first walked the earth. Shortly before her death, Ayn Rand noted with trepid... (See the whole review)

Been going thru this book, and find it of much interest --especially regarding many comments made in the threads on religious moderates and fundamentalists... for instance -- "Religious moderation springs from the fact that even the least educated person among us simply knows more about certain matters than anyone did two thousand y... (See the whole review)

Here's a book allegedly about junk science, and it devotes an entire chapter on the "myth" that free market medicine (as in the US) is better than socialized medicine.  Evidently "science" proves that socialized medicine is actually better.  By what standard, you ask?  Not to fear.  He starts with the assumption that universal healthcare and equali... (See the whole review)

This is a story often told.  However, based on excerpts from the author's website, I judge this to be a conceptual -- and conceptually moral -- retelling, more than just an adventure or a documentary. In these outtakes, the bold face type is my own highlighting of the clues that led me to judge this as much a work of morality as a mere war-story. ... (See the whole review)

This a book that I couldn't put down. It's a great read, and an interesting case in ethics that many Objectivists will like. The description on Amazon says it all, and I don't want to give away the details, but it's very well written and both emotional and entertaining. So read it!

John Adams was the unappreciated genius of the American revolution.  Today, perhaps as a result of being dumbed own by public schooling, we confute the "revolution" with the "war for independence."  The fact is the revolution took place in the minds of the people, from 1765 if not earlier.  That distinction first was made by John Adams.  Historian ... (See the whole review)

At the encouragement of someone who has in the past shown interest in Objectivism, I read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.  While I did not consider the reading a complete waste of time, I did consider the author so profoundly wrong about so many things that I cannot honestly recommend the book.  His thesis that "mind identification" serves as th... (See the whole review)

Some fans of Rand have said that if _Atlas Shrugged_ is ever made into a movie that it should be "updated"--i.e., the passenger train industry should be replaced by passenger airplanes. I think it would quite foolish to tamper with _Atlas_ in such a way. It could also be said that the story of "Atlas Shrugged with Airplanes" has already been writte... (See the whole review)

Basement Nukes the Consequences of Cheap Weapons of Mass Destruction by Strauss, Edwin S.  ... (See the whole review)

This graphic novel was the final work of master cartoonist Will Eisner. Throughout his career he developed most of the important narrative skills of the medium. Over the years he was one of the first to take the medium seriously as a place to tell stories and express ideas. ... (See the whole review)

For a mystery which was written decades ago, "The A.B.C. Murders" is surprisingly modern in its sophistication.  People are being murdered by the letters of their names with the murders announced days in advance.  Is it a madman?  A patronizing criminal mastermind?  Agatha Christie delivers an intriguing ride of twists and turns. 

From the aptly named Galt Press comes the Complete Guide to Asset Protection Strategies by Mark Warda, Attorney at Law.  In modern America, no one remains safe from frivolous lawsuits.  A person's entire life savings can vanish overnight thanks to a tort system that rewards envy and careless living.  The American legal system authorizes tort lawyer... (See the whole review)

Barbara Branden commented sometime ago that she hadn’t known much writings about the lives in Communist China. I have since discovered Ha Jin, a Chinese born author and Professor of English Literature at Boston University. Ha Jin writes both poetry and fiction, in English. The subject matter of his fictions so far (except his latest novel War Trash... (See the whole review)

In Serious Play, Michael Schrage shows how rapid prototypes and models affect innovation within companies. Schrage introduces the concept of shared space. He maintains that the areas of interaction in a company are extremely important in determing a company's success.

Thomas W. Malone shows how today's companies must decentralize, loosen up corporate hierarchies and set up market mechanisms within the company to stay competitive. There's also a neat case study of  how Wikipedia was started by Larry Sanger and Objectivist entrepreneur Jimmy Wales.

This sweeping text opens with the author recounting how human civilization and its economies have progressed through a series of ages: ... (See the whole review)

The author could easily have subtitled this book Assertiveness Training for Straight Men Who Date.  In a world of romantic literature polluted with titles like Why Men Won't Commit, The Commitment Cure as well as the myriad Mars and Venus cash cow texts, it seems that the overwhelming number of them aim at a female target market at the expense of e... (See the whole review)

http://www.larryelder.com/larrysbooks.html I highly recommend this book by libertarian author, Larry Elder. He has courage and confronts racists of all colors.   (See the whole review)

This is a recent collection in the Marvel Visionaries series (others include Stan Lee and Jim Steranko). ... (See the whole review)

Attorney and author Gerry Spence has graced the world with his books and arguments for many years.  At the time of publication of this book in 1996, the author had never lost a case he had tried.  In this text, he outlines the logical and emotional aspects of argumentation. ... (See the whole review)

Amazon.com An Excerpt from Bill Watterson's Introduction: ... (See the whole review)

The late millionaire Charles Givens gained fame, fortune and notoriety as the leading American financial advice author in the 1990s.  His first book, Wealth without Risk, remained for many weeks on the bestseller list.  His follow-up book, Financial Self-Defense, also became a bestseller.  He later revised and updated his first book and published i... (See the whole review)

Florida Objectivist John White tackles the difficult situation in which many who face middle age find themselves: Broke, in debt and facing retirement age with no savings.  With wit and style, the author outlines a step-by-step plan for assessing the reader's current condition and helping the reader to reach a place of financial solvency in the sho... (See the whole review)

Years ago, when I began engaging others in Internet discussion forums, I found myself groping for tools to analyze arguments.  As a sad statement of my college education, the logic course I took as a freshman only focused on "truth table" construction and never discussed the powerful body of informal fallacies compiled over the centuries.  A trip t... (See the whole review)

Book Description After the publication of Atlas Shrugged in 1957, Ayn Rand occasionally lectured in order bring her philosophy of Objectivism to a wider audience and apply it to current cultural and political issues. These taped lectures and the question-and-answer sessions that followed not only added an eloquent new dimension to Ayn Rand's ide... (See the whole review)

As a bookstore employee, I've often wondered about the space dedicated to the many useless books on self-help, many of them by the same authors. If each has the answer, why do they need to keep writing books? Obviously it's the failure of the reader to achieve his potential. More likely the need of the author to make more money at the expense of t... (See the whole review)

“Were there a bureaucrat controlling any other industry (e.g., farming, fishing, furniture making) who did for it what Alan Greenspan does for monetary policy, we would have no difficulty in labeling him as an economic czar, a socialist of the worst stripe. We would tell him to go back, not to Russia, or East Germany, but to Cuba o... (See the whole review)

Story of purity versus change part 3: ORIGIN is the story of Marvel Comic's most popular character next to Spiderman, the mutant Wolverine of the X-Men. Wolverine's popularity is partly due to the quest for his forgotten past, and that origin has been "the greatest story never told" in comics. Editor in Chief Joe Quesada found Marvel to have lo... (See the whole review)

I have found this book to be more beneficial as an introduction to "Objectivist Thought" for the layman than any of her other writings. I have tried to talk to people at the ARI and TOC, but the minute I mention this title the subject is changed or the communication terminated. "For the New Intellectual", "A Time For Truth" by William E. ... (See the whole review)

THE FOUNDATION TRILOGY by Isaac Asimov (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) ... (See the whole review)

The Standard Model has a surprisingly low profile for such a fundamental and successful theory.... In physics news items, the Standard Model usually plays the whipping boy. Reports of successful experimental tests of the theory have an air of disappointment, and every hint of the theory's inadequacy is greeted with glee. It is the Rodney Dangerfiel... (See the whole review)

Think you know Islam?  Everything (well, almost everything) you know about Islam and the Crusades is wrong. Most textbooks and popular history books are written by left-wing academics and Islamic apologists who justify their contemporary political agendas with contrived historical "facts".  But fear not:  Robert Spencer refutes popular myths... (See the whole review)

This book is a cross between Dr. Seuss and Ayn's Rand's Atlas Shrugged. http://www.oakleafpublishing.biz/images/book1_2.bmp (See the whole review)

In this 75 page essay Murray Rothbard outlines his proposal for replacing the existing dollar with the equivalent of a 100 percent gold backed currency. In fact, he goes as far as to advocate, "the return to gold by every nation, at 100 percent of its particular currency, and the subsequent blending of all these international currencies into one go... (See the whole review)

The newest Harry Potter book went on sale this morning at midnight.  My daughter was one of those silly people lining up to buy a copy at midnight and she stayed up all night reading the entire book.  She told me that the books are getting darker and Hogwarts isn't the fun escape it used to be.  Someone very important dies in this book.  (She told ... (See the whole review)

This is the freshman work of a talented young Objectivist cartoonist named Bosch Fawstin. He's been nominated for an Eisner award (the comic equivalent of an Oscar) in the category of "talent deserving of wider recognition." ... (See the whole review)

Roger Dawson delineates the attributes of a successful negotiation and explains in detail how to make the people with whom you negotiate feel good about the deal you want to make.  When he overhears a person accuse him of wanting to snatch the gold fillings from people's teeth, he explains that such an action would amount to stealing, not power neg... (See the whole review)

Objectivists all too often allow themselves to become mired in arguments over who has the "right" position rather than simply asserting themselves and then acting by right.  Their mistake draws from the hidden assumption that one must necessarily seek "permission" from peers to engage in activities that have nothing to do with those peers.  This au... (See the whole review)

Do you hate ze French?  C'est logique!  ... (See the whole review)

Objectivists with children eventually want to discuss with them the right of an individual to his own mind, body and property -- regardless of "majority vote."  Such parents can use this book to their advantage.  The author's acid wit burns to the end when he serves to the antagonists large helpings of their "just deserts." The book centers ... (See the whole review)

Objectivism holds the individual as the highest value.  From this core value flows a sense of benevolence toward one's fellow human beings in the quest for productive relationships of value exchange.  An Objectivist will thus have a natural motivation to develop skill at cultivating these relationships for his own benefit. ... (See the whole review)

The story covered in this volume of Daredevil invloves Matt Murdock meeting his opposite number, Maya Lopez. Maya Lopez is a Native American girl who was born without a sense of hearing, her visual instincts more than make up for it though. She was able to master speech, art, dance, and musicianship from nothing but sight.  Her father was murdered ... (See the whole review)

Whether you love him or hate him, Leonard Peikoff has written a definitive, bottom to top, tour de force treatment of Objectivism in this publication.  Newcomers to the ideas of Ayn Rand will appreciate this systematic, integrated, "big picture" overview of her philosophy for living on Earth.  Detractors will complain that this book merely uncritic... (See the whole review)

Frank Miller made his start as a writer on Daredevil, so it was fitting that he returned to the character that made him famous to do the definitive origin. ... (See the whole review)

Check out the images available on the Amazon site. ... (See the whole review)

Aristotle’s PHYSICS, translated by Joe Sachs. Rutgers University Press, 1994, 260 + xi. Include Introduction, Commentary, Glossary and Index. Aristotle was Ayn Rand’s favorite philosopher and it is a pity that she had to read him through Latinized spectacles, rather than in an English translation that tries to be as true to Aristotle’s G... (See the whole review)

"Defining and measuring the topology of excellence in the arts and sciences over a span of some three millennia, Charles Murray's Human Accomplishment scales  the alpine peaks of human achievement and then plumbs their foundations. In a world of cultural relativism and sentimental diversity, he dares expound a theory of hierarchy founded on endurin... (See the whole review)

A plague kills all the adults, leaving children to fend for themselves.  This is the story of how Lisa figures it all out, using reason.  She attacks each problem in turn and ultimately takes control of enough of the city to ensure the survival of the group that clusters around her.  This is Atlas Shrugged for children.  Instead of a given ... (See the whole review)

Objectivism aims to help an individual to employ his own human capacity to reason to achieve productive purposes for the ultimate benefit of that individual.  Doing so requires a commitment to discipline and focus and a thorough understanding of the nature of one's own consciousness, both content and process.  Such an understanding will empower the... (See the whole review)

This is an excellent biography of Ayn Rand's mentor and long-time best friend, and one of the founders of the modern libertarian movement. I highly recommend it. Here's one of the blurbs on the back, from Nathaniel Branden: "I picked up The Woman and The Dynamo without knowing what to expect -- and couldn't put it down. It is more than a bea... (See the whole review)