Below is a list of recommended readings for instructors who are interested in using Ayn Rand’s books and essays in the classroom. Introductory and advanced level articles are arranged by topic. An abbreviation key is located at the bottom of this page. To request review copies of Ayn Rand’s books and articles for classroom use, please contact us.
Topic | Introductory | Advanced |
|---|---|---|
Importance of Philosophy | “Philosophy: Who Needs It” (PWNI) “Philosophy and Sense of Life” (RM) | “For the New Intellectual” (FNI) |
Ethics | ||
Egoism and Altruism | Introduction to Virtue of Selfishness (VOS) “The Soul of an Individualist” (FNI) “Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World” (PWNI) | “The Objectivist Ethics” (VOS) “Causality versus Duty” (PWNI) “The Ethics of Emergencies” (VOS) “The ‘Conflicts’ of Men’s Interests” (VOS) “This Is John Galt Speaking” (FNI) |
Abortion | “Of Living Death” (VOR) “The Age of Mediocrity” (TOF) | |
Justice | “How Does One Live a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?” (VOS) “The Cult of Moral Grayness” (VOS) | “An Untitled Letter” (PWNI) |
Political Philosophy/ | ||
Rights | “Man’s Rights” (VOS) “Collectivized ‘Rights’” (VOS) | “This Is John Galt Speaking” (FNI) |
Government | “The Nature of Government” (VOS) | |
Capitalism | “The Moral Meaning of Capitalism” (FNI) | “What Is Capitalism?” (CUI) |
Capitalists and Industrialists | “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business” (CUI) “The Money-Making Personality” (WBNP) “The Sanction of the Victims” (VOR) | “The Martyrdom of the Industrialists” (FNI) “For the New Intellectual” (FNI) |
Business and Economics | “The Meaning of Money” (FNI) “From Each According to His Ability, to Each According to His Need” (FNI) | “Notes on the History of American Free Enterprise” (CUI) “The Property Status of Airwaves” (CUI) “Patents and Copyrights” (CUI) “Antitrust: The Rule of Unreason” (VOR) “The Inverted Moral Priorities” (VOR) “Egalitarianism and Inflation” (PWNI) |
War | “The Roots of War” (CUI) “Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World” (PWNI) | |
Individualism and Collectivism | “The Soul of an Individualist” (FNI) Textbook of Americanism (from ARI) “Collectivized Ethics” (VOS) | |
Racism and Multiculturalism | “Racism” (VOS) “Global Balkanization” (VOR) | |
Environmentalism | “The Anti-Industrial Revolution” (NL) | |
“Conservatives” and “Liberals” | “The Intellectual Bankruptcy of Our Age” (VOR) “The Left: Old and New” (NL) “Conservatism: An Obituary” (CUI) | |
Free Speech and Censorship | “The Establishing of an Establishment” (PWNI) “Censorship: Local and Express” (PWNI) “Man’s Rights” (VOS) | |
Religion | “Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World” (PWNI) “The Metaphysical Versus the Man-Made” (PWNI) Playboy’s Interview with Ayn Rand (pamphlet) “Requiem for Man” (CUI) “Of Living Death” (VOR) | “This Is John Galt Speaking” (FNI) |
Epistemology | ITOE “For the New Intellectual” (FNI) | |
Metaphysics | “The Metaphysical Versus the Man-Made” (PWNI) | “This Is John Galt Speaking” (FNI) ITOE: Chapter 6 |
Art and Esthetics | “Art and Sense of Life” (RM) “The Psycho-Epistemology of Art” (RM) | “Art and Cognition” (RM) |
Literary Esthetics | “Basic Principles of Literature” (RM) | “What Is Romanticism?” (RM) “The Esthetic Vacuum of Our Age” (RM) “Bootleg Romanticism” (RM) Art of Fiction |
Philosophy in Film | We the Living (movie) The Fountainhead (movie) | |
Nonfiction Writing | Art of Nonfiction | |
Fiction/Literature | We the Living Anthem The Fountainhead Three Plays | Atlas Shrugged The Early Ayn Rand |
American Literature | Anthem The Fountainhead | Atlas Shrugged |
American Playwrights | Three Plays | |
Literature and Film | We the Living “Red Pawn” (TEAR) The Fountainhead We the Living (movie) The Fountainhead (movie) | |
Utopian and Dystopian | Anthem | |
Anti-totalitarian | Anthem We the Living “Red Pawn” (TEAR) | Atlas Shrugged |
About Ayn Rand’s Life | Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (movie) Facets of Ayn Rand by Charles and Mary Ann Sures Ayn Rand by Jeff Britting | |
| CUI | Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966) |
|---|---|
| ITOE | Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (1979) |
| FNI | For the New Intellectual (1961) |
| NL | The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (1971) |
| PWNI | Philosophy: Who Needs It (1982) |
| RM | The Romantic Manifesto (1969) |
| VOR | The Voice of Reason (1989) |
| VOS | The Virtue of Selfishness (1964) |
| TEAR | The Early Ayn Rand (edited by Leonard Peikoff, 1984) |
| TOF | The Objectivist Forum (edited by Harry Binswanger, 1980–1987) |
| WBNP | Why Businessmen Need Philosophy (edited by Richard E. Ralston, 2011) |
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